Iranian diplomats kidnapped in Lebanon are alive

"We consider them all to be alive, until the time we are given the proof that they have been martyred," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a regular news briefing.

Asefi said they are alive and kept in Israeli jails. "Such remarks are unacceptable. These persons are alive and are held by the Zionist regime, and we hold Zionist regime accountable."

In an interview with As-Safir newspaper published on Thursday, Geagea claimed that the four Iranian diplomats were killed on July 4, 1982 by Phalangist militia.

The Phalangist forces, commanded by Geagea, were aligned with Israel during the Lebanese civil war.

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

MS/SA

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MNA