ICRC urged to clarify Asgari’s fate

An Iranian envoy has urged the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) to exert its full capacity to determine the fate of Ali Reza Asgari, who has reportedly died in an Israeli prison.

Iran’s permanent representative at United Nations Office at Geneva, Seyyed Mohammad Reza Sajjadi, held talks with Christine Beerli, vice president of the ICRC in Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday and urged the organization to shed light on the mystery behind the reported martyrdom of the former Iranian deputy defense minister in an Israeli prison, IRNA reported.

During the meeting, he echoed grave concerns raised by Iranian caretaker Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, who earlier this month wrote a letter to the ICRC Jakob Kellenberger concerning the recent report about the alleged death of Asgari.

Recently a Zionist media outlet reported that Asgari committed suicide in Israel’s Ayalon prison but immediately removed the news story from their website.

The Eurasia Review website claimed that a source within the “inner circle” of the Israeli Defense Ministry had identified the prisoner as Asgari and that his death could have been murder and not suicide.

Asgari, had mysteriously disappeared in Turkey in 2007. He was widely perceived to have been abducted and transferred to Israel through an American military base in Turkey.

“Abduction of Asgari is a clear violation of international law and a clear example of the state-sponsored terrorism,” Salehi said in his letter.

Meanwhile, sajjadi stated that in the wake of the recently released reports concerning the fate of the former Iranian official, the ICRC is expected to use its capacity to clarify the issue of Asgaris’ abduction.

The Iranian envoy further turned the spotlight on multiple cases of abduction carried out by the Israelis over the past years, namely the July 4 incident in 1982 when four Iranian diplomats were kidnapped by militiamen and Israeli forces at an inspection point in northern Lebanon.