‘Abducted Iranian diplomats still alive’ - Gayo Lues

In a Wednesday interview with the official Majlis news agency, ICANA, Qashqavi pointed to Iran’s efforts to pursue the fate of the abducted envoys, saying, “All the four Iranian diplomats are alive.”

The Lebanese government has provided enormous assistance to Iran in the course of the investigations, he pointed out.

Qashqavi noted that over the past year Iran’s diplomatic apparatus has adopted a series of legal measures, the results of which will come to light in the near future.

On July 4, 1982, four Iranian diplomats — Ahmad Motevaselian, Seyyed Mohsen Mousavi, Taqi Rastegar Moqaddam and Kazem Akhavan — were kidnapped by a group of Israel-backed gunmen at an inspection point in northern Lebanon.

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

Iranian and Lebanese officials have declared that the issue will be addressed on an international level.

The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah had stressed that the fate of the abducted Iranians had been raised in the indirect negotiations for a prisoner exchange with the Israeli authorities after the 2006 war.

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

ASH/HMV/IS