Israel Matzav

Iranian foreign minister blames US and Israel for 'diplomats' disappearance

Iranian Foreign Minister Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Saturday that Iran continues to blame the US and Israel for the disappearance of four Iranian 'diplomats' in southern Lebanon during the 1982 Peace for Galilee operation.

The foreign minister made the remark in a ceremony commemorating the abduction anniversary of the Iranian diplomats at the Foreign Ministry premises.

Iran's then charge d'affaires to Beirut Mohsen Mousavi, Iranian diplomat Taqi Rastegar-Moqaddam, the country's military attache Ahmad Motevasselian and IRNA photojournalist Kazem Akhavan were kidnapped in Beirut in 1982 while being escorted by the Lebanese police on their way back home from a mission in northern Lebanon.

Mottaki said abduction, assassination, occupation, invasion, massacre of civilians, and savage bombardment of residential areas are major characteristics of the Tel Aviv regime.

He regretted that neither the US, nor Israel has been responsive to the efforts made by international bodies and global community to determine the fate of the Iranian diplomats.

Okay, this is the first time I've ever heard these guys named and described, and it sure raises an awful lot of questions. Let's start with the question of whether these guys are diplomats:

Charge d'affaires to Beirut Mohsen Mousavi - If that was really his position, he was clearly a diplomat. On the other hand, consider how often Iran has used its embassies in foreign countries to promote terror (Buenos Aires anyone?).

Iranian diplomat Taqi Rastegar-Moqaddam - What does 'Iranian diplomat' mean? Maybe he was a diplomat and maybe he wasn't. I would not accept an Iranian assertion that he was a diplomat at face value.

The country's military attache Ahmad Motevasselian - Military attache to whom? Why did Iran have a military attache in Lebanon? Maybe a diplomat, maybe not.

IRNA photojournalist Kazem Akhavan - Clearly NOT a diplomat.

IRNA claims that they were "kidnapped in Beirut in 1982 while being escorted by the Lebanese police on their way back home from a mission in northern Lebanon." A military mission? If so, they aren't diplomats anymore. Diplomats aren't involved in military missions.

"Mottaki said abduction, assassination, occupation, invasion, massacre of civilians, and savage bombardment of residential areas are major characteristics of the Tel Aviv regime." Forget all his libels. Our capitol is in Jerusalem. Always has been and always will be. Deal with it or don't deal with us.

"He regretted that neither the US, nor Israel has been responsive to the efforts made by international bodies and global community to determine the fate of the Iranian diplomats." We gave Iran a report that said at least as much as the worthless paper Iran's Hezbullah surrogates gave us on Ron Arad (who, by the way, according to everyone's intelligence information was last being held by Iran). Unfortunately, Israel's gutless government won't call off the terrorists for corpses swap because the Arad paper didn't say anything. If Iran wants to force Hezbullah to call it off, many Israelis will be happy to comply.

And by the way, what ever happened to those twelve Jews that Iran kidnapped while they were trying to escape the Islamist hellhole?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:29 PM