In a Friday statement released on the 37th anniversary of the abduction, the Foreign Ministry said based on ample evidence, the Islamic Republic of Iran holds the Zionist regime of Israel and its allies legally and politically responsible for the abduction and the terrorist move.
The statement also slammed the international community and the self-proclaimed advocates of human rights for refraining from adopting any serious measure against the crime and said the Zionist regime backed by the US keeps continuing its crimes and measures against the international law and evading responsibility.
It then reiterated calls for the establishment of an international fact-finding committee to follow up the fate of the abducted diplomats.
Four Iranian diplomats – the then charge d’affaires of the Iranian embassy in Beirut Seyyed Mohsen Mousavi, military attaché Ahmad Motevasselian, embassy technician Taqi Rastegar Moqaddam and a journalist working for the Islamic Republic News Agency Kazem Akhavan were kidnapped by a group of Israel-backed gunmen at an inspection post in northern Lebanon on July 4, 1982.
