Calls to free Iranians kidnaped from Lebanon to Israeli jails
Iran-Israel, Politics, 7/9/2007

The Iranian official news agency IRNA on Saturday expressed outrage at detention of reporter and three Iranian diplomats, accompanying him, for 25 years, in Israeli jails and called for the international organizations to help secure their freedom.

Releasing a statement to mark the 25th anniversary of kidnapping the four Iranian nationals by Israeli forces and taking them to Israel, IRNA said it is a disgrace on part of the international organizations to keep silent for 25 years vis-a-vis the inhumane action and gross violation of the international conventions.

Diplomats Ahmad Motavaselian, Taghi Rastegar Moghaddam, Hassan Mousavi and IRNA reporter Kazem Akhavan were kidnapped at the end of their mission in Lebanon by Israeli proxy forces led by Samir Gaagaa in July 1982.

"Kidnapping Iranian diplomats took place at a time when all the diplomatic corps had left Lebanon due to the civil war in Lebanon, but, the Iranians had stayed there thanks to sense of responsibility and solidarity with the Lebanese nation," the statement said.

The statement criticized the international organizations for their inaction about releasing Iranian diplomats kept in Israeli jails and compared it with the efforts being made to release Israeli military personnel when it happens to them.

"The international organizations issue resolutions seeking freedom of the Israeli military men when they are being captured in fighting, but, they did nothing in the past 25 years to release the four Iranians kidnapped in Lebanon. Isn't it a discrimination toward Iran? Aren't the international organizations following the US-Israeli lead?" The statement said, "Of course since the Iranians have been kidnapped in Lebanon, the Lebanese government is required to clarify their whereabouts." IRNA called on the international organizations advocating the reporters to exert pressure on Israel to free the Iranian reporter and three diplomats from jail.

The statement reiterated that the four Iranians are alive languishing in Israeli jails documenting on the eyewitness accounts and the information the former inmates of Israeli prisons have passed to Iranian Embassy in Beirut.

Association of Lebanese POWs and Freed POWs expressed sympathy with families of Iranian kidnapped diplomats and IRNA photojournalist on Friday, and asked for imposing international pressure against Israel to free them.

Head of the said association, Ata'ollah Hammoud, made the comment at a commemoration service held at Iranian Embassy on the 25th anniversary of the terrorist act.

He said, "We have to appreciate the brave move of the Iranian diplomats in maintaining their presence in Lebanon, particularly more so, since the other countries evacuated their diplomats from Lebanon under those tough conditions." Hammoud added, "We feel the pain suffered by the Iranians kidnapped by the Lebanese Christian Party, who were tortured and delivered to the Zionist enemy."

The Lebanese NGO official accused the international community of keeping dead silent about the fate of these four Iranians, and tens of thousands of other Lebanese that have been kidnapped, but at the same time "raising a hue and cry over the fate of a single Israeli aggressor pilot Ron Arad, another aggressor Israeli soldier Golad Shith and two Israeli POWs at the disposal of the Lebanese resistance forces," IRNA reported.

Hammoud emphasized, "The Lebanese Government is responsible for the kidnapping of the Iranian diplomats, because our government is holding constant talks with foreign government and diplomats aimed at restoring stability here." He added, "The Lebanese Government had better ask the head of one of its organs, namely the Lebanese Forces Party, to reveal the facts regarding the Iranian diplomats and to facilitate their association with their families." A representative of the Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, a representative of the Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Head of Lebanon's Towhid Movement, a number of Lebanese MPs, political, and religious figures, Ambassador of the International Human Right Organization in Lebanon Ali Aqil Khalil, and PLO Ambassador in Lebanon Abbas Zaki attended the commemoration service.

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