The Foreign Ministry of Iran issued a statement on the 39th anniversary of abducting of four Iranian diplomats by mercenaries of the Zionist regime in Lebanon in 1982, saying Israel is politically and legally responsible for the fate of those abductees.

In the statement, released on Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the four Iranian diplomats, namely Seyed Mohsen Mousavi, Ahmad Motavasselian, Kazem Akhavan and Taqi Rastegar Moqaddam, have been kidnapped by the armed mercenaries under the Zionist regime’s command in violation of international rules and conventions.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has announced repeatedly that it has documents and evidence that those Iranian diplomats have been handed over to the occupier forces after illegal abduction and have been subsequently taken to the Zionist regime’s prisons,” the statement said.

Highlighting Iran’s extensive measures to pursue the case via international and regional organizations, the Foreign Ministry said, “Considering the occupation of Lebanon by the Zionist regime in 1982, the Zionist regime and its terrorist-fostering sponsors are politically and legally held accountable for the abduction of the diplomats and such a terrorist act.”

The statement underlined that a top priority of the Iranian Foreign Ministry is to pursue the case of the kidnapped diplomats through diplomatic interactions with international and regional bodies, calling on the UN secretary general and international and human rights organizations, including the Red Cross, to pay serious attention to such a humanitarian issue that is related with international conventions.