TEHRAN, July 16 — Iran's state-run television on Monday broadcast the first video of two Iranian-American scholars since they were detained in May on espionage charges.
Haleh Esfandiari, a scholar at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center, and Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planner with ties to the Open Society Institute financed by George Soros, were shown briefly on the midday news.
The Iranian authorities have suggested that the two have confessed that in their work in Iran, they were trying to overthrow the government. The television news said their full statements would be broadcast Wednesday and Thursday in a program titled "In the Name of Democracy."
It said the program would also show statements by Ramin Jahanbegloo, an Iranian-Canadian scholar who was arrested last year on similar charges and held for four months. He was released in August after confessing that foreign agents might have exploited his expertise.
The United States has denied that the two are spies and demanded their release. Iran analysts have suggested that hard-liners in the Iranian government may be seeking to use the arrests for leverage with the United States.
The television images appeared to be of interviews made separately. Ms. Esfandiari was shown wearing a black head scarf and was seated next to a plant and a refrigerator. "I am Haleh Esfandiari, and one of my roles was to identify speakers," Ms. Esfandiari was heard saying.
"In the name of dialogue, in the name of women's rights, in the name of democracy," she was heard saying in another brief segment.
Mr. Tajbakhsh is heard saying the words "to divide the people from the government." The role of the Soros center "after the collapse of the communism," he said, "was to focus on the Islamic world." He was holding what appeared to be notes.
State-run television has previously shown similar video described as confessions made by other detainees. Most of them have rejected their statements after their release and have said they were forced to make the statements under duress.
Eight British sailors and seven British marines were arrested in March and accused of entering Iranian waters. They were released after they had given televised confessions.
Both Mr. Tajbakhsh and Ms. Esfandiari were believed to have been in solitary confinement since their arrests, lawyers have said.
Ali Shakeri, of the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding at the University of California, Irvine, is also being held in Iran. Parnaz Azima, a journalist who works for Radio Farda, an American-financed station based in Europe, has been barred from leaving the country.