TEHRAN, Iran, (AP) – Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman says Dorothy Parvaz — a correspondent for Al-Jazeera who Syrian officials last week said they deported to Tehran — has committed several violations, but stopped short of admitting she is being held in Iran.

Tuesday’s remarks by Ramin Mehmanparast were the first from Iran on the fate of the 39-year-old Parvaz, who has been missing since she left Al-Jazeera’s headquarters in Doha, Qatar, on April 29, for Syria.

Mehmanparast says Parvaz, who also hold American and Canadian citizenship, “traveled to Syria with expired Iranian passport, planned to work without a press permit and had several passports on her.” He didn’t elaborate or offer any evidence.

Mehmanparast says Iran is “following the issue” and that what happened to Parvaz is “important to us, too.”