kidnapped Iranian diplomats still alive

Tehran, Nov 19, IRNA – An official in charge of following up the fate of four Iranian diplomats abducted in Lebanon in 1980s said there are certain evidence indicating that they are still alive. 'There is reliable information indicating that the four Iranians (three diplomats and one IRNA photographer) are still alive,' Seyyed Raed Mousavi, secretary of the ad hoc committee in charge of following up the fate of the abducted diplomats told IRNA in Beirut, Lebanon. Three Iranian diplomats (military attaché at Iran's Embassy in Beirut Ahmad Motevasselian, chargé d'affaires Seyyed Mohsen Mousavi, staff of the Embassy Taqi Rastegar Moqaddam) and a photographer from Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) Kazem Akhavan were kidnapped on July 4, 1982 by a group of Israel-backed gunmen. Raed, who is the son of one of the kidnapped Iranian diplomats, said, 'I have been saying over and over that the diplomats were not assassinated. There is no reason that the Iranian diplomats could have been killed. If they were to be assassinated, they would not have been abducted,' he argued. 'There are bodies of evidence suggesting that the Iranian diplomats have been transferred to the prisons of the Zionist regime,' Mousavi added. He noted that there should be a reason for their killing but no one could ever have provided any evidence indicating that they have been killed. 1378/IRNA