TEHRAN (FNA)- The Iranian Foreign Ministry in a statement on Friday called for setting up of an international fact-finding committee to clarify the fate of the four Iranian diplomats kidnapped in Southern Lebanon in 1982.
The foreign ministry called on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and other international bodies, including the International Red Cross Committee to fulfill their legal and humanitarian duties to follow up the issue.

On July 4, 1982, four Iranian diplomats - Ahmad Motevaselian, Seyed Mohsen Mousavi, Taqi Rastegar Moqaddam and Kazzem 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 attach� 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.