Iran accuses Israel of holding kidnapped diplomats
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5/22/2006 9:00:00 AM GMT
Iran insists that four Iranians, three of them diplomats, abducted by
members of former Christian warlord Samir Geagea's militia during the 1982
Israeli invasion of Lebanon, are being held in Israel, AFP reported.
"We consider them all to be alive until the time we are presented with proof
that they have been martyred," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza
Asefi told reporters.
"They are alive and are held by the 'Zionist' regime, and we holding
'Zionist' regime accountable," he added.
Iran and the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah have repeatedly accused
Israel of holding the four Iranians after receiving them from Geagea's
Lebanese Forces (LF).
But LF leader Geagea claims that Iranian hostages died in captivity more
than 20 years ago.
"LF members killed the Iranian diplomats shortly after they were kidnapped,"
Geagea said last week in an interview with As-Safir newspaper.
He added that the Lebanese Defense Ministry probed the incident in the early
90s and claimed that the "Lebanese and Iranian governments have all the
details of the operation," including the burial place of the Iranians.
The LF blames the killing of the Iranian diplomats on former LF military
commander in Beirut, Elie Hobeika, who was killed in 2001.
Three Iranian diplomats - Mohsen Mousavi, Ahmad Motevaselian, Taqi
Rastegarmoghaddam, and a photographer for state news agency IRNA, Kazem
Akhavan - were kidnapped in Northern Lebanon during the 1982 Israeli
invasion.
According to Lebanese officials, the Iranians were on their way from
Damascus to join the Iranian Embassy in Beirut on July 4, 1982.
When they reached the Lebanese-Syrian border point of Masnaa in the Bekaa
Valley, the four men were joined by a Lebanese security convoy. The Lebanese
Foreign Ministry recommended at the time that they use the
Bekaa-Cedars-Koura-Barbara road instead of the Beirut-Damascus highway,
which was then under Israeli control.
LF members controlling a military checkpoint in Barbara detained the
Iranians, and transferred them to the Karantina area in Beirut under the
command of Raji Abdo.
The Iranians were never seen afterwards.
The kidnapping has been frequently raised in back-door negotiations between
Lebanon, Iran and Israel, which is seeking information on Israeli Air Force
navigator Ron Arad, who was shot down over South Lebanon in 1986.
Israeli officials have accused Hezbollah of handing Arad over to Iran, but
Tehran and Hezbollah strongly deny such claims.
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