Publish Date: 20 May 2006 - 18:22

TEHRAN, May 20 (MNA) -- The director of the committee for pursing the fate of the four Iranian diplomats kidnapped in 1982 in Lebanon denied on Friday a claim by former Christian warlord Samir Geagea that the diplomats kidnapped by members of his now defunct Lebanese Forces militia died at least 20 years ago.

“The diplomats are alive and under the control of the Zionist regime,” Kazeminia (first name not given) added.

 

Geagea had previously said that the diplomats had been handed over to Elie Hobeika, he noted.

 

Hobeika was allied with Israel when it invaded Lebanon but it seems that the Mossad killed him in order to prevent him from testifying against former Israeli Prime minister Ariel Sharon in a war crimes tribunal.

 

The Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri was supposed to hold talks on the four kidnapped Iranian diplomats with Geagea on May 16, Kazeminia pointe out.

 

Three Iranian diplomats -- Mohsen Mousavi, Ahmad Motevaselian, Taqi Rastegarmoghaddam -- and a photographer for state news agency IRNA, Kazem Akhavan, went missing in northern Lebanon during the country's civil war.

 

RS/HL/MS

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MNA