Hoping for a Humanitarian Gesture from Iran

It has now been over two years since my father, Robert “Bob” Levinson, went missing in Iran. He disappeared on Kish Island, a free-trade zone on March 9, 2007, while investigating cigarette smuggling for his security consulting firm. No one has seen or heard from him since. These past two years have brought my family – my mother, four sisters, two brothers and I – nothing but grief and sadness as we hear less and less from the Iranian government about his disappearance.

Earlier this year, during Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s confirmation hearings, both she and Florida Senator Bill Nelson agreed that if the Iranian government is, as Senator Nelson believes, holding my father, then they have a great opportunity to send a gesture of human compassion and goodwill by releasing him and reuniting him with his family.

While we must stress that our family has never accused the Iranian government of any involvement in my father’s disappearance, we do, however, ask them for clarification concerning an April 2007 report by PressTV, the Iranian government-sanctioned media outlet, stating that my dad had been “in the hands of Iranian Security forces since the early hours of March 9th” and that we should “see him freed in a matter of days.” The last man known to have seen my father made a similar claim.

During an interview with NBC Nightly News last August, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was very knowledgeable about my father’s case, and even offered to assist the FBI in its efforts to find him. He also discussed the trip my mother and I took to Iran in December 2007 to search for my father.

Unfortunately, we never received the report on the investigation we were assured would come after that trip, only being told since that the case was “closed.” We have still not met with the Iranian Ambassador to the UN, nor could President Ahmadinejad find time to meet with my mother during his two visits to New York since my father disappeared.

The State Department continues to work on our behalf, and has sent a number of diplomatic notes to Iran via the Swiss, as recently as this month, but Iran has stopped responding. Last month, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a resolution, introduced by Senator Nelson, which urges Iranian officials to fulfill their promises of assistance to my family and to help the FBI in its investigation. The resolution also urges the U.S. government and its allies to continue efforts to press Iran on my father’s case. The House Foreign Affairs committee approved a similar resolution this past week.

Additionally, Senator Nelson sent a letter to Secretary Clinton this week ahead of her trip to the international conference on Afghanistan to be held in The Hague next week, in which an Iranian delegation will be participating. He expresses our hopes that this will be an excellent opportunity to discuss my father’s case with Iranian officials directly. Senator Nelson also believes that “the U.S. has an obligation to prioritize the case of this missing American in the context of any potential improvement in relations and cooperation between the U.S. and Iran.”

In December, my sister gave birth to my father’s second grandchild, a beautiful baby girl named Grace. We can only hope that this happy news might find him and he can celebrate, wherever he is. What we are more hopeful for, however, is that he will celebrate with us, in person, very soon.

For two years now my family has suffered, enduring the constant pain that silence brings. March 10th was my father’s 61st birthday. It was the third straight birthday he has not celebrated with us. Soon it will be my parents’ 35th wedding anniversary. It is heartbreaking to think that someone we love more than anything is out there, somewhere, and we can’t see our even speak to him. The recent news of Roxana Saberi, in Iranian custody since January, only further shows how devastating it is when a family member suddenly disappears in Iran.

As the Iranian New Year, Norwuz, has recently passed, we know Iranian families celebrated together the hope that the new year brings. We, too, look forward to celebrating my father's return as a family someday very soon.