Tehran has urged the United Nations to put pressure on Israel to release a clear report on the fate of four Iranian diplomats kidnapped 27 years ago.

The request was handed over to UN Deputy Secretary General Lynn Pasco by Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Ali Hosseini, IRNA reported on Wednesday.
Ahmad Motevasselian, Seyyed Mohsen Mousavi, Taqi Rastegar-Moqaddam and Kazem Akhavan were abducted by armed Phalangists in north Lebanon in 1982.
Speculations are that they were then handed over to the Israeli army that occupied the country at the time. Several officials in Tel Aviv have claimed that the four were murdered shortly after being abducted by their captors.
The Phalange is the branch of the Lebanese Forces Party, which is currently led by Samir Geagea -- a politician aligned with the Western-backed March 14 Coalition.
This is while in a May 18, 2006 interview with the As-Safir newspaper, Samir Geagea claimed that the four diplomats were in fact abducted and killed at a checkpoint near the northern city of Byblos by the Lebanese Forces Party.
But the Iranian government and the diplomats’ families have been pushing for their release, having obtained information which suggests that they are alive and held in Israeli prisons. This is while international organizations have done little to help.
The last they were heard of was June 2008, when the Lebanese resistance group and political party, Hezbollah received an Israeli report about the diplomats in an information exchange prior to a major prisoner swap.
At the time, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called for an end to the mystery that engulfs the fate of the four Iranian envoys.
Although the information exchange between Israel and Hezbollah was helpful, it was not enough to show what had become of the Iranian diplomats, Ban said, adding that the United Nations was ready to assist in whatever way possible.
Earlier in March, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay also said that the body was committed to pursuing the fate of the Iranian diplomats, but she did not clarify what steps were to be actually taken. (Source: Press TV)