TEHRAN (Mehr News Agency) -- The Iranian Interior Minister Seyed Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari said on Wednesday that according to the investigations carried out the tourists kidnapped in Sistan-Baluchestan province on December 2 have not been moved to neighboring countries.

Lari told reporters after a cabinet meeting that the Iranian officials would never pay the ransom set by the kidnappers.

The kidnappers have set five million euros ($6 million) as ransom for freeing the one Irish and two German tourists.

He said that the authorities are busy inspecting the issue and police forces have announced that they have found some traces about the whereabouts of the kidnapped tourists and they hope to resolve the problem soon. The tourists have been cycling in the area without any coordination with the local officials, the Low Enforcement Forces or any of the country’s organizations, the interior minister mentioned

The kidnappers know that the Islamic Republic of Iran is able to confront with them and that they should not create further problems, the minister said.

A German Foreign Ministry official told the Mehr News Agency that Berlin’s Crisis Group is continuing its efforts to obtain the release of the two German tourists who were recently kidnapped in southeastern Iran.

The official said that the German Foreign Ministry has phoned Iranian government officials and the German Embassy in Tehran, and asked Iranian officials to conduct a serious investigation.

The official added that the only information the German Foreign Ministry has on the identity of the two German tourists is that they are German merchants who were traveling in Iran.

The official said that the German defense and interior ministers, other German officials, and several officials of the Iranian Interior Ministry are members of the Crisis Group.

The official added that the Crisis Group will continue its efforts until the German tourists are freed, but made no comment on the current condition of the German tourists.