Senior Iranian Lawmaker Deplores “UN’s Double-Standards” on Abducted Diplomats

A prominent Iranian lawmaker criticized the UN its double-standards vis-à-vis probing the fate of the four Iranian diplomats who were abducted in Southern Lebanon over 30 years ago.
“Despite Iran’s serious follow-up on (the fate of) four kidnapped diplomats, no one has been answerable, and this double-standard treatment by the United Nations is regrettable,”

member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Esmail Kosari said on Thursday.

Kosari underlined that the UN human rights bodies should be held accountable in this regard, adding, “When an American or an Israeli soldier is taken into captivity, they (the UN) question the entire world.”

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

The then charge d’affaires of the Iranian Embassy in Beirut Seyed Mohsen Mousavi, military attaché Ahmad Motevaselian, embassy technician Taqi Rastegar Moghadam and journalist of the Islamic republic news agency Kazzem Akhavan were kidnapped by the Lebanese mercenary army – also known as the Falangists – at gunpoint in Northern Lebanon in 1982 and were later handed over to the Israeli army.

Israel has released contradictory reports on the issue. The Zionist regime alleged in a statement in 2010 that the diplomats had never been surrendered to Israel. Elsewhere it claimed in response to a request put forward by the Lebanese Hezbollah group that the four are already dead.