On the 43rd anniversary of the kidnapping of four Iranian diplomats in Lebanon, namely Seyed Mohsen Mousavi, Ahmad Motevaselian, Kazem Akhavan, and Taghi Rastgar-Moqaddam, the Foreign Ministry of the Islamic Republic of Iran commemorates their memory and sympathizes with their patient families who are waiting to hear from them.
As it has repeatedly been said, there is plenty of evidence and documents proving that Iranian diplomats were kidnapped by an armed group on Lebanese soil at a time when the country had been occupied by the Zionist regime, and then they were handed over to the occupiers and transferred to the occupied territories.
Kidnapping Iranian diplomats on July 4, 1982, in Beirut is not only an action against international law and a blatant violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention concerning diplomatic relations, but also constitutes an example of a terrorist act under the 1979 Convention on the Prohibition and Punishment of Hostage-Taking.
Iran views the Zionist regime as the agent responsible for the kidnapping and hostage-taking of its nationals and is still pursuing this subject very seriously before relevant international entities.
The Islamic Republic of Iran once more requests that the Lebanese government and the Secretary General of the United Nations fulfill their human and legal responsibilities in pursuing this case.
Within this framework, we emphasize the formation of a fact-checking committee between Iran and Lebanon with the help of the International Red Cross Society to investigate the subject and clarify the situation of the kidnapped Iranian diplomats.
