According to a report dated yesterday

(September 9th), “Iran says seeking clues over missing American,”

Iran said on Sunday it was seeking clues over the fate of a US former FBI agent who reportedly disappeared while visiting the Islamic republic six months ago.

The fate of Robert Levinson, who Washington says went missing in March while on a private visit to Iran’s southern island of Kish, has remained a mystery ever since with Iran insisting it has no information about him.

“The Iranian authorities are seeking to find traces of him and the officials’ efforts are ongoing,” foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters.

Iran has always said it had no record of Levinson even entering the country. It was not clear if the spokesman’s comments represented any change in that position.

Hosseini said that “information” requested by the Americans had been sent to the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which represents US interests in Iran in the absence of a US mission.

Levinson’s wife Christine said last month that she wanted to visit Iran to search for her husband, but Hosseini said that “no request” for a visa had been received by Iranian officials.

Hosseini also said Swiss embassy officials “requested to travel to Kish and Iranian officials wanted them to provide the reasons why such a trip is necessary,” without elaborating.

The Washington Post reported last week that Iran blocked the request for Swiss diplomats to visit Kish to look for traces of the missing Levinson, in particular his luggage.

Perhaps this represents an incremental move towards a face-saving position in which the Iranian government takes the position that it has just learned of Levinson’s whereabouts – possibly a “mistaken” incarceration, or the result of  “unauthorized” action by local officials.

Watching and waiting.