DM: Kidnapped Iranian Diplomats Alive in Israeli Prisons
Mon May 23, 2016 3:47
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950303000840

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan
announced on Monday that Iran is in possession of corroborative evidence
proving that its four diplomats abducted in Lebanon in 1982 are still alive
and imprisoned by Israel.

"We claim on the basis of proofs that they are alive and captivated by the
Zionist regime," General Dehqan said in an interview with Defa Press news
website.

He underlined that the Israelis are responsible for the health of the
Iranian diplomats, adding that Tehran will also pursue their fate legally
and politically.

The then charge d'affaires of the Iranian Embassy in Beirut Seyed Mohsen
Mousavi, military attaché Ahmad Motevaselian, embassy technician Taghi
Rastegar Moghadam and journalist of the Islamic republic news agency Kazzem
Akhavan were kidnapped by the Lebanese mercenary army - also known as the
Falangists - at gunpoint in Northern Lebanon in 1982 and were later handed
over to Israeli army.

Israel has released contradictory reports on the issue. The Zionist regime
alleged in a statement last year that the diplomats had never been
surrendered to Israel. Elsewhere it claimed in response to a request put
forward by the Lebanese Hezbollah group that the four are already dead.

In January 2009, the then Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said that Iran
had received a report from the Zionist regime which said the kidnapped
Iranian diplomats had not been transferred to Tel Aviv and laid the blame on
the Lebanese mercenary army affiliated with Israel.

In reaction to the report, the spokesman said at the time that the report
"will not relieve the Zionist regime of its responsibility" for the
healthiness and safe repatriation of the diplomats.