An Iranian diplomat accused Israel on Thursday of secretly imprisoning four Iranians who disappeared in Lebanon in 1982, and demanded that they be released. Mojtaba Ferdoussi, charge d'affaires at the Iranian Embassy in Lebanon, said all the information Iran had indicated that the missing Iranians were still in Israel.
The Iranians were seized in Beirut in 1982 at the height of the Lebanese civil war. Teheran said they were kidnapped by right-wing Lebanese Christian militiamen who delivered them to Israel. Israel has long denied holding them.
Ferdoussi spoke at a news conference in Beirut on Thursday. A day earlier, Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said Israel will provide the group with information on the fate of the four Iranians as part of a prisoner exchange.