The Iranian Foreign Ministry has released a statement on the 37th anniversary of the abduction of four Iranian diplomats in Lebanon by the mercenaries of the Israeli regime.
What follows is the full text of the statement as published by the ministry’s website:
In the Name of God
Friday, July 5, 2019, is the 37th anniversary of the abduction of four Iranian diplomats - Seyyed Mohsen Mousavi, Ahmad Motevasselian, Kazem Akhavan and Taqi Rastegar Moqaddam - by the mercenaries of the Zionist regime in Barbara checkpoint in northern Lebanon in 1982.
As announced on numerous occasions over the past years, evidence clearly shows that the abducted Iranian diplomats have been handed over to the occupying forces of the Zionist regime and consequently transferred to the occupied territories, and are now held in the illegitimate regime’s prisons.
Given the fact that Lebanon was under the US-backed Israeli occupation at that time, the Islamic Republic of Iran holds the Zionist regime and its sponsors legally and politically responsible for the abduction and the terrorist move.
Many years after the criminal and terrorist move, unfortunately the international community and the self-proclaimed advocates of human rights have failed to adopt any serious measure against the crime, and the Zionist regime backed by the US is continuing its crimes and measures against the international law, and evades responsibility for this case.
The Islamic Republic of Iran pays gratitude to the Lebanese government for its cooperation and related measures to find out the fate of the abducted diplomats – including its letter to then UN chief in September 2008 – and once again calls on the Lebanese officials as well as the Secretary General of the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other related international bodies to fulfill their natural, legal and humanitarian duty to follow up the issue and do whatever in their power to learn of the fate of the abducted Iranian diplomats. To this end, the Islamic Republic once again underlines its previous proposal that a fact-finding committee is formed by the International Committee of the Red Cross to follow up the issue.
The Foreign Ministry of the Islamic Republic commemorates the memory of the abducted diplomats and insists on continuing its efforts to learn of the fate of the dear diplomats. It also expresses sympathy with their families who have undergone much suffering during the past years waiting for their loved-ones’ return to the Islamic homeland. Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry expresses hope that all the captives and prisoners held in the jails of the Zionist regime particularly the dear Iranian diplomats are freed and return to Iran soon.
MNA/MFA