Iran: Prisoner swap success of Lebanese resistance
'Zionist regime should give up its stubbornness and free all Palestinians and the Islamic republic's diplomats and surrender itself to the truth,' FM Mottaki says
Iran said Thursday that Israel's release of Lebanese prisoners in a swap with the Shiite group Hizbullah was an achievement both for the movement and the Lebanese people, the state news agency IRNA reported.
"The glad news of the release of Lebanese prisoners by the Zionist regime is part of the achievement by the Islamic Hizbullah and the dear Lebanese people's resistance. We congratulate them for this great victory," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying.
Five Lebanese prisoners freed by Israel arrived to a hero's welcome in Lebanon Wednesday, hours after Hizbullah handed over the bodies of two Israeli soldiers seized by its guerrillas two years ago.
Mottaki also said: "The Zionist regime should give up its stubbornness and free all Palestinians and the Islamic republic's diplomats and surrender itself to the truth."
He was referring to four Iranians, seized in 1982 by a Christian militia in Lebanon, which Tehran insists are still alive and being held in Israel.
Israel at the time was carrying out a major military operation in Lebanon when three diplomats - Mohsen Mousavi, Ahmad Motevaselian and Taghi Rastegar Moghadam - disappeared, along with Kazem Akhaven, a photographer with the IRNA news agency.
