Iran’s Ambassador to Beirut Ghazanfar Roknabadi says Tehran has evidence proving that the four Iranian diplomats kidnapped in Lebanon over three decades ago are still alive and being held in Israeli jails, Press TV reports.
The Iranian envoy made the remarks in a ceremony marking the 31st anniversary of the abduction of the four diplomats -- Ahmad Motevaselian, Seyyed Mohsen Mousavi, Taqi Rastegar Moqaddam and Kazem Akhavan - kidnapped on July 4, 1982 by a group of Israel-backed gunmen at a checkpoint in northern Lebanon.
“Well, we announced that we couldn’t find any document which proves they have been martyred here in Lebanon. All of the documents prove that they were transferred when they were kidnapped in Lebanon,” Roknabadi said.
“They (diplomats) have been transferred to occupied Palestine,” he added.

He stated that the case is a “national and human” issue and called on the international community to exert more pressure on the Israeli regime to release the Iranian diplomats as soon as possible.

Also attending the ceremony was advisor to the Iranian president Maryam Mojtahedzadeh who criticized the international community for remaining tight-lipped on the case.
“If they had a different nationality, there would have been an international outcry especially from human rights organizations. But since the Iranians and Israelis are involved, the international community has turned a blind eye,” she told Press TV.
She also called on the Lebanese government and international organizations to adopt serious and effective measures to determine the fate of the four abductees.

The Lebanese forces militia headed by Samir Geagea was known for its close ties with Israel at the time of the abduction of the Iranian diplomats and was responsible for handing over many Lebanese and foreigners to Israeli custody at the peak of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.

Geagea has made contradictory statements concerning the Iranian diplomats, initially saying that his militia handed them to Israel and later claiming that they witnessed their killing inside Lebanon.

The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah says the fate of the kidnapped Iranians was brought up in indirect negotiations for a prisoner exchange with the Israeli side after the 2006 war.

However, Israel has not released any information about the four missing Iranians.

The families of the abducted diplomats are urging the international community to take up responsibility and establish a fact-finding mission to help solve the decades-long case once and for all.

By Press TV

 

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