Wife of missing ex-FBI agent in Iran, seeking help

TEHRAN (Reuters) - The wife of a former FBI agent who disappeared during a trip to Iran arrived in Tehran on Tuesday to press the Islamic republic's government to help find him, a Reuters witness said.

Christine Levinson last week said she had received a visa to travel to Iran along with her son to search for her husband, Robert Levinson, who vanished in March while on a business trip to Iran's Gulf island of Kish.

The United States has no diplomatic ties with Iran and has sent requests for information about Levinson to Tehran via the Swiss government, which acts as a go-between. The Iranian government has said it had investigated Levinson's case but did not know what happened to him.

U.S. officials have said they believe Levinson is in Iran but they have no credible information on his whereabouts.

A Reuters photographer said Levinson's wife and son, Daniel, arrived at Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport at around 23:00 (2:30 EDT) from Paris. Two Swiss embassy officials welcomed them at the airport.

Levinson's wife is expected to meet Iranian officials to discuss her missing husband's case.

Levinson retired from the FBI a decade ago and his wife said he had traveled to the Iranian resort island of Kish to investigate counterfeiting and smuggling of cigarettes for a client, likely a tobacco company.

Levinson called his wife on March 8 before boarding a plane from Dubai to Kish. He told her he had left most of his luggage at a Dubai hotel and would be back within 24 hours.

When he did not call two days later on March 10, his 59th birthday, Mrs. Levinson said she knew there was a problem.

In August, the U.S. State Department said it had urged Levinson's family to think twice about visiting Iran, where four other U.S. citizens have been detained this year. The four were released later.

(Reporting by Morteza Nikoubazl, Writing by Parisa Hafezi, editing by Sami Aboudi)