[Cacti]

Perhaps the agent was acting as an Arab while at the conference, and was obviously not Persian? Perhaps the Iranian had relatives who were Arab? Maybe the agent acted like the guy was Arab when they first bumped into each-other, to throw off the idea he was looking for Iranians, and this is like an inside joke to be friendly?

I mean, there are plenty of possibilities here, including that the person describing the event is describing it second hand well after a decade has passed.

Don't be in such a rush to judgement; you might learn something.