Islam Times - 'Iran will not give up on trying to find missing diplomats'

Islam Times - Iran's first vice president says Tehran will never stop pursuing the fate of the four missing Iranian diplomats who were abducted by Israel in southern Lebanon 30 years ago.

On July 4, 1982, four Iranian diplomats -- Ahmad Motevaselian, Seyyed Mohsen Mousavi, Taqi Rastegar Moqaddam and Kazem Akhavan -- were kidnapped by a group of Israel-backed gunmen at an inspection point in northern Lebanon.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut on Thursday, Mohammad-Reza Rahimi said Iran will never forget about its four abducted diplomats and will continue to probe the case.

The Iranian diplomats were last heard of on June 2008, when the Lebanese Hezbollah Resistance Movement received a report indicating that the diplomats were alive and in Israeli captivity.

Israel claims that the four diplomats were abducted by the Lebanese Forces group, and were killed shortly after their abduction.

The Iranian first vice president said during negotiations in Lebanon, he also discussed the fate of the missing Shia cleric of Iranian descent, Imam Mousa Sadr, with the Lebanese officials.

Rahimi noted that the two sides have reached an agreement to look for clues which will shed light on the fate of the Lebanese cleric.

Sadr, the founder of Lebanon's Amal Movement, was a popular and highly revered Lebanese Shia cleric, who disappeared on August 31, 1978 while visiting Libya. He was scheduled to meet with officials from the government of the former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi along with two of his companions, Mohammed Yaqoub and Abbas Badreddin.

Rahimi wrapped up his official two-day visit to Lebanon on Thursday.