Washington ? President Bush said Thursday that “many questions” have been raised by allegations of some former American hostages that Iran’s president-elect was one of their captors a quarter century ago.

“I have no information,” Bush said in an interview with foreign reporters ahead of a trip to Scotland next week. “But obviously his involvement raises many questions.” The hostage comments were first brought to light by The AP.

Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said the administration has followed the career of Iranian president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has been serving as the hard-line mayor of Tehran.

He said they are “looking to see what’s in the files,” but he would not disclose what the U.S. government may know about any role Ahmadinejad had in the 1979 hostage-taking crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and whether he is one of the captors pictured in photos from the crisis.

“At this point no determination has been made,” Hadley said. “We need to get the facts. These are allegations that have come forward. They are allegations at the present time.”

This Nov. 9, 1979, file photo shows one of 60 U.S. hostages, blindfolded and with his hands bound, being displayed to the crowd outside the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by Iranian hostage takers. At least two former U.S. hostages say they believe the bearded man, third from left, is Iranian president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A close aide to Ahmadinejad refused to look at the photos or comment on the issue in Teheran on Thursday.

Former hostages Chuck Scott, David Roeder, William J. Daugherty and Don A. Sharer told The Associated Press that after seeing Ahmadinejad on television, they have no doubt he was one of the hostage-takers. Two other ex-hostages, Kevin Hermening and William A. Gallegos, said they reached the same conclusion after looking at photos. Associates of Ahmadinejad denied the president-elect took part in the seizure of the embassy or in holding Americans hostage.

The hostage-taking, which came in reprisal for Washington’s refusal to surrender ousted Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi for trial there, contributed substantially to then-President Jimmy Carter’s defeat by Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election.

Militant students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979, and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. The shah had fled Iran earlier that year after he was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution.