BBC Monitoring

Text of report in English by Iranian news agency IRNA website

    Tehran, 07 July: The Iranian 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 Geagea 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 discrimination towards 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 eye-witness accounts and the information the former inmates of Israeli prisons have passed to Iranian Embassy in Beirut.

    Source: IRNA website, Tehran, in English 1314 gmt 7 Jul 07