FM: Iran to take legal action on abduction of 5 diplomats by US

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Sunday that Iran would preserve the right to pursue the case of five released Iranian diplomats who had been taken hostage by US troops in Iraq in 2007 and will act accordingly.

The five, Baqer Ghabishavi, Mahmoud Farhadi, Majid Qaemi, Majid Daghari and Abbas Hatami-Kasavand, were abducted on January 11, 2007 after the US combat forces broke into the Iranian consulate in Iraq’s Kurdish city of Erbil, some 350 kilometers north of Baghdad.


The diplomats were released last Thursday and returned home this morning thanks to the efforts made by the Iranian Foreign Ministry and cooperation of the Iraqi government.

“The act of taking hostage of the Iranian diplomats by the US forces was “against all international laws and regulations,” Mottaki said, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony to welcome the freed diplomats.


He added the Iranian diplomats were released by the Iraqi government after the pulling out of the US forces from the Iraqi cities which has started since June 30 based on a security agreement signed between the Iraqi government and the US officials.

Based on the agreement, the Iraqi forces would solely be in charge of providing security in the war-stricken country as a major stepping stone towards a complete withdrawal of American troops.

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