After 37 years, Iran urges ICRC probe into disappearance of its diplomats

Iran’s Foreign Ministry yesterday urged the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to form a fact-finding committee to probe the issue of four diplomats kidnapped in Lebanon in 1982, Iranian news agencies reported.

“As has been announced several times over the past years, evidence shows that the kidnapped diplomats in Lebanon were delivered to the Israeli Zionist forces and then they were transferred to the occupied lands and they are now held in prison by this illegitimate regime,” a statement said.

It added: “Given the fact that Lebanon was under the US-backed Israeli occupation at that time, the Islamic Republic of Iran holds the Zionist regime and its supporters legally and politically responsible for the abduction and the terrorist action.”

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Friday marked the 37th anniversary of the disappearance of diplomats identified as Seyyed Mohsen Mousavi, Ahmad Motevasselian, Kazem Akhavan and Taqi Rastegar Moqaddam.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry’s statement called for the ICRC and other international bodies to continue efforts to reveal the fate of these diplomats.

“To this end, the Islamic Republic once again underlines its previous proposal that a fact-finding committee is formed by the International Committee of the Red Cross to follow up on the issue,” the statement said.

Iran believes that the diplomats are being held in Israeli prisons, despite an announcement by the Lebanese Forces party in 2008 that they had been killed by members of the party. However, former Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi reiterated that there are documents proving their existence in Israel.