Iran to discuss Sadr’s fate with NTC

An Iranian lawmaker says the sub-committee investigating Shia cleric Imam Mousa Sadr’s fate will officially pursue his case after normalcy is restored in Libya.
Member of the Majlis (parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Javad Karim Qoddousi said on Sunday that the sub-committee had temporarily postponed its original plan to travel to Libya on October 30.

“[Iran’s] Foreign Ministry is adamant that the sub-committee must travel to Libya after stability is restored in the country and official meetings with the [National Transitional Council NTC] becomes possible,” Majlis official news agency, ICANA, quoted him as saying.

Qoddousi said that given Imam Sadr’s popularity in Libya there are many groups that would like to know what happened to him.

Sadr, the founder of Lebanon’s Amal Movement, was a popular and highly revered Lebanese Shia cleric of Iranian descent, who was kidnapped while on an official visit to Libya on August 31, 1978.

Sadr was scheduled to meet with officials from the government of the former Libyan ruler, Muammar Gaddafi along with two of his companions, Mohammed Yaqoub and Abbas Badreddin.

It is widely believed in Lebanon that the Shia cleric was kidnapped on the orders of senior Libyan officials.

In 2008, the Beirut government issued an arrest warrant for Gaddafi over Sadr’s disappearance.

Iran’s Majlis has been stepping up diplomatic efforts to clarify the fate of the kidnapped influential cleric following the fall of Gaddafi.