WASHINGTON — The family of a retired FBI agent presumed dead after vanishing in Iran 18 years ago is calling for any deal between the United States and Iran to include the return of his remains.
Robert Levinson disappeared on March 9, 2007, when he was scheduled to meet a source on the Iranian island of Kish. For years, U.S. officials would say only that Levinson was working independently on a private investigation. But a 2013 Associated Press investigation revealed that Levinson had been sent on a mission by CIA analysts who had no authority to run such an operation.
The U.S. government in 2020 said that it had concluded that Levinson had died while in the custody of Iran. The family at the time said that it did not know when or if Levinson’s body would be returned for burial but vowed that those responsible for his death would ultimately face justice.
“We want to make sure that our dad is not forgotten,” Daniel Levinson, one of Levinson’s sons, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Friday.
The younger Levinson said that as President Donald Trump signals an interest in diplomacy over Tehran’s nuclear program that could avert direct U.S. military involvement in Iran’s war with Israel, now is the time for Washington to use its “leverage to hold them responsible.”
The family, he said, still has no answers but believes the Iranian government does.
“We fully believe that they know exactly where his remains would be and what exactly happened to him,” he said. “We want justice for him. We want to get answers. We have no answers and the Iranian government has lied about it for 18 years.”
On Thursday, an account on the social media platform X created to draw attention to Levinson’s case posted a message that said: “Our dad, Bob Levinson, was left behind too many times. This may be the last chance to get answers. Any deal with Iran must finally bring him home to rest on US soil.”
Among the people who reposted the message was FBI Director Kash Patel.