Security sources in Beirut (archives)
Photo: AFP
Iran insists missing diplomats held by Israel
As part of prisoner swap deal with Hizbullah, Jewish state to deliver information on four Iranian diplomats who disappeared from Beirut during Lebanon War. Iranian Embassy in Lebanese capital says does not expect mystery to be solved
The four missing Iranian diplomats are still alive and are being held in the enemy's prisons, the Iranian Embassy in Beirut said in a statement issued Wednesday.
"The four are still alive… This is what has been revealed from our information, which is based on a number of sources, and due to the fact that there are no details or information to contradict this," the statement read.
Several days before the completion of the prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hizbullah, which will include reports on the fate of missing Israel Defense Forces navigator Ron Arad and the four Iranian diplomats who disappeared from Beirut during the 1982 Lebanon War, Tehran expressed its complete lack of trust in the information expected to be delivered by the Jewish state.
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Iran placed the responsibility for handling the matter on the international community as well. "This issue was never a political issue, but a diplomatic issue, and its handling falls on the shoulders of the international community," the statement went on to say.
The Iranian also explained that the issue was subject to the Geneva Convention, "which rules that the occupier is responsible for all the events and developments taking place in the occupied country during the period of occupation."
They noted that the four missing diplomats enjoy diplomatic immunity in accordance to the Vienna Convention.
The Iranian Embassy added that "this issue will remain at the focus of Iranian diplomacy in all its regional and international relations and talks with the international organizations, as it has always done, until these four dear people are released."
The embassy went on to express its regret over the fact that "this issue will continue to remain unresolved and will not reach the outcome we hope for."
