‘Yemen responsible for diplomat kidnap’

A top Tehran official says the Yemeni government is responsible for the abduction of an Iranian diplomat last year.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Tuesday criticized the Yemeni government’s inaction on Nour Ahmad Nikbakht’s arrest, adding the kidnapped Iranian diplomat is now being held in a security prison of the Yemeni government.

He, however, said that received updates from Sana’a are in contradiction with what Yemeni authorities have told Iran about the abducted diplomat.

Iran will pursue efforts to secure the diplomat’s release, the official said, reiterating that Nikbakht is in good health.

“The Yemeni government is responsible for the Iranian diplomat’s safety and his safe return to the country,” he concluded.

Nikbakht was on his way to work from his home in the diplomatic quarter of the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, on July 21, 2013 when unidentified gunmen blocked the road, forced him out of his vehicle and abducted him.

He has been detained in Yemen for more than a year.

On January 18, another staff member at the Iranian Embassy in Sana’a, Abolqasem Asadi, was gunned down by members of a terrorist group outside the Iranian ambassador’s residence in the Yemeni capital.

The assailants first tried to kidnap the Iranian diplomat, but when they faced resistance, opened fire on him. The diplomat who was seriously injured passed away in hospital.