Michael White, U.S. Navy vet, held in Iran for months: Report

Iran has imprisoned a U.S. Navy veteran since last summer, The New York Times reported late Monday night.

Michael R. White, 46, was arrested in late July while he was visiting his Iranian girlfriend, his mother Joanne White told The Times.

She filed a missing person’s report after Mr. White failed to board the flight that would have returned him via Dubai. State Department officials informed her just a few weeks ago that he was found in an Iranian prison.

“All I know is that he is alive, and they were putting in a request for a consular visit by the Swiss,” she told The Times.

The Swiss Embassy has provided consular services for Americans in Iran since 1980 when the U.S. severed diplomatic relations with the Middle Eastern nation.

The State Department told The Times that they were aware of reports concerning an imprisoned American, but could not comment any further. 

Mrs. White said her son has visited Iran “five or six times” to visit his girlfriend, but she was unaware of how they met or what charges are filed against him.

Iranwire, an outlet run by Iranian journalists outside the country, also reported on Mr. White’s possible imprisonment on Monday. This article included a series of photographs of Mr. White and a woman who appears to be his girlfriend.

According to The Times, Iran has at least three other American prisoners, two of Iranian ancestry and one that has been missing for more than a decade.

The report comes at a time of high tensions between the U.S. and Iran, with the Trump administration cracking down on the Middle Eastern country and walking out on the Iran nuclear deal.