TEHRAN – Tehran’s Ambassador to Beirut Mohammad Fathali has said that Iran had presented to the UN documents proving that Iranian diplomats were abducted in northern Lebanon in July 1982.

Iran has been holding Israel first and foremost responsible for the abduction of four of its diplomats in Lebanon. Tehran insists they are still alive and kept in Israeli prisons.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran regards the Zionist regime responsible for the kidnapping of the Iranian diplomats,” Fathali said on Saturday as he addressed a ceremony in Beirut on the 25th anniversary of the abduction of the diplomats.

He noted that the documents presented to the UN were gained in cooperation with the Lebanese government.

Ambassador Fathali also called on the international community and human rights bodies to pressure Israel to free the diplomats.

On July 4, 1982, the year Israel invaded Lebanon, Ahmad Motevasselian, Seyyed Mohsen Mousavi, Taqi Rastegar Moqaddam and Kazem Akhavan (an IRNA reporter) were kidnapped by a group of Israeli-backed gunmen at an inspection post in northern Lebanon.

Hossein Amir Abdollahian, a senior advisor to the Iranian Parliament speaker, said in relevant remarks on Tuesday that the abducted diplomats are still alive and held in Tel Aviv’s prisons.

“There is no evidence proving that they have been killed,” Amir Abdollahian wrote on his Telegram account.

The senior advisor called on the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to boost its efforts to determine the fates of the kidnapped diplomats.

MH/PA