Senate Pleads With Iran for Robert Levinson Help
The U.S. Senate unanimously approved a resolution urging Iran to fulfill its pledge to help find Robert Levinson, a Jewish American who went missing in Iran in 2007.
Five Americans were released last month in a prisoner exchange with Iran timed to mark the launch of the implementation of the sanctions relief for nuclear rollback deal between Iran and six major powers. The Iranians said they would assist in tracking down Levinson; the Obama administration believes he is no longer in Iran.
The non-binding resolution approved Thursday, sponsored by Sens. Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio, respectively a Democrat and a Republican from Levinson’s home state of Florida, “notes the pledges by current Iranian officials to provide their government’s assistance in the Robert Levinson case” and “urges Iran, as a humanitarian gesture, to intensify its cooperation in the Robert Levinson case and to share the results of its investigation into his disappearance with the U.S. government.”
Levinson, 68, of Coral Springs, Florida, a private detective and a former FBI agent, has been missing since disappearing from Iran’s Kish Island during what has since been revealed as a rogue CIA operation.
Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., who represents Levinson’s southern Florida district, is advancing a similar motion in the U.S. House of Representatives. It was approved this week by the House’s Middle East subcommittee.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30