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The reported defection of an Iranian scientist to the United States has renewed speculation about a CIA plot to sabotage Iran's nuclear program through covert action.

But it remains unclear whether Shahram Amiri, the young physics researcher who reportedly joined forces with the US spy agency, represents an intelligence coup for Washington or a minor setback for Tehran, former CIA officers said.

ABC television reported that Amiri, who went missing without explanation in Saudi Arabia last year, had defected and resettled in the United States in cooperation with the Central Intelligence Agency.

Amiri, in his thirties, worked at Tehran's Malek-Ashtar University of Technology, part of a network of research centers with close ties to Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards and the country's weapons industry.

The scientist did not appear to play a senior role in the country's nuclear project, and his knowledge may have been confined to a single aspect of the program.

"It's really impossible to say how much of a window this kind of a defector could provide without knowing how much he was reading into aspects of the entire program, as opposed to chipping away at one part of the program," CIA veteran Paul Pillar told AFP.

"One ought to be very cautious about how much a difference any one individual might make,&qu... >>>