TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran on Saturday reiterated that its four diplomats abducted in Lebanon in 1982 are still alive and imprisoned by Israel, including a former commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) General Ahmad Motevaselian who served as a military attach�.
"We want our dear brother Mr. Ahmad Motevaselian from the Zionist regime since this incident (kidnapping) happened in a region which was under the control of the Israeli regime's affiliates," Secretary of Iran's Expediency Council (EC) and former IRGC top commander Mohsen Rezayee told FNA on Saturday.


He underlined that Iran will not accept that Motevaselian is in any other place than Israel.


Rezayee also said that freedom of the Iranian diplomats has always been a fixed issue raised in talks with the officials of Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance group.


His remarks came after Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan announced last Monday that Iran is in possession of corroborative evidence proving that its four diplomats abducted in Lebanon in 1982 are still alive and incarcerated in Israel.


"We claim on the basis of proofs that they are alive and captivated by the Zionist regime," General Dehqan said in an interview with Defa Press news website.


He underlined that the Israelis are responsible for the health of the Iranian diplomats, adding that Tehran will also pursue their fate legally and politically.


The then charge d'affaires of the Iranian Embassy in Beirut Seyed Mohsen Mousavi, military attach� Ahmad Motevaselian, embassy technician Taghi Rastegar Moghadam and journalist of the Islamic republic news agency Kazzem Akhavan were kidnapped by the Lebanese mercenary army - also known as the Falangists - at gunpoint in Northern Lebanon in 1982 and were later handed over to Israeli army.


Israel has released contradictory reports on the issue. The Zionist regime alleged in a statement last year that the diplomats had never been surrendered to Israel. Elsewhere it claimed in response to a request put forward by the Lebanese Hezbollah group that the four are already dead.


In January 2009, the then Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said that Iran had received a report from the Zionist regime which said the kidnapped Iranian diplomats had not been transferred to Tel Aviv and laid the blame on the Lebanese mercenary army affiliated with Israel.


In reaction to the report, the spokesman said at the time that the report "will not relieve the Zionist regime of its responsibility" for the healthiness and safe repatriation of the diplomats.


By Fars News Agency