Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/three-iranian-americans-detained-in-iran Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Three Iranian-Americans are being held in Iran on suspicion of conducting activities against the government. Guests with ties to two of the detained scholars talk about the latest developments. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JUDY WOODRUFF: Now, another topic on the U.S.-Iran agenda of the future. As we've been reporting, three Iranian-Americans are being held in Iran. Two are in the infamous Evin prison: Kian Tajbakhsh, a consultant for the Open Society Institute, a private democracy-promoting foundation established by financier George Soros; and Haleh Esfandiari, a Mideast scholar with the Woodrow Wilson Center. An Iranian-American journalist, Parnaz Azima, has been barred from leaving Iran since January.We get an update now from Aryeh Neier, president of the Open Society Institute; and Shaul Bakhash, a professor of history at George Mason University and husband of Haleh Esfandiari.Gentlemen, thank you for being with us. Mr. Neier, let me begin with you. What was Kian Tajbakhsh doing in Iran? ARYEH NEIER, Open Society Institute: The Iranian government had, over a period of time, asked us for help in dealing with a number of problems that they have. We don't only promote democracy. We also provide assistance on public health programs and humanitarian programs in all parts of the world. And we did that in Iran.A former ambassador to the U.N. for Iran, Ambassador Husseini, asked me for help in dealing with Iran's terrible problem of intravenous drug use. They have one of the worst problems in the world. And we provided specialists, experts to go to Iran to help them in dealing with that problem.And we needed somebody on the ground in Iran who would oversee the implementation of programs that we had. And so a scholar and expert in urban public policies such as Kian Tajbakhsh was the kind of person who could do that sort of work for us. And so we made an arrangement with him that he would be the person in Iran overseeing the implementation of the few projects that we're able to conduct there. JUDY WOODRUFF: So working as a consultant for you… ARYEH NEIER: Working as a consultant, and dealing with public health, and humanitarian, and cultural programs. JUDY WOODRUFF: When was he taken into custody? And what happened? ARYEH NEIER: Well, as far as I know, he was taken into custody on May 11. We didn't find out about it right away. And I'm not quite sure what is happening to him in custody, because we can't communicate with him. And so far as I know, he is not represented by counsel.