An Iranian nuclear scientist who said he was kidnapped by the U.S. has arrived home in Tehran vowing to reveal more details of his claimed abduction while on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia last year.

Speaking to Al Jazeera during a transit stop in Qatar, Shahram Amiri said he was interrogated by U.S. agents who refused to allow him contact with his family, but that he “never cracked” and had not revealed any secret information about Iran’s nuclear program.

Washington has denied the claims saying Amiri had lived freely in the United States, had himself reached out to U.S. officials, and was free to come and go.

Arriving back in Iran early on Thursday Amiri flashed a victory sign as he was given a tearful welcome by relatives and friends at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport.

Iranian authorities have repeatedly said that Amiri was seized by the CIA during a visit to Saudi Arabia last year, and Iran’s state television has broadcast the text of what it said was an interview with him in which he claims he was abducted at gunpoint by U.S. agents while attending the Hajj pilgrimage.

Amiri said he was “kidnapped with the help of the Saudis” and had been “put under a number of pressures” while held in the U.S.

He said he had been dropped off at the Iranian interests section of the Pakistan embassy in Washington on Monday after U.S. agents decided they had no more need of him.

Amiri’s disappearance has been linked to rising international pressure over Tehran’s controversial nuclear program, which Iran says is for peaceful purposes but many countries led by the United States say the country is pursuing atomic weapons.

Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reporting on the case said that Amiri had been handed over to the Pakistani embassy by U.S. agents, calling it a defeat for U.S. intelligence services.

“Because of Iran’s media and intelligence activities, the American government had to back down and hand over Amiri to the embassy on Monday night,” Fars said. 

face anywhere in public and those caught wearing a full veil would face fines of $190 or be ordered to enroll in a “citizenship course.”

Men who force their wives or daughters to wear the full veil face a fine of up to $37,754 and a one-year jail term, according to the draft legislation. 

 PHOTO: Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri speaks with journalists as he arrives at the Imam Khomini airport in Tehran July 15, 2010. Amiri, a nuclear scientist who says he was abducted by U.S. agents, thanked Iranian authorities for returning him home on Thursday, the culmination of a murky saga that has underscored deep U.S.-Iranian mistrust. REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi