Iranian Parliament's General Director for International Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Thursday that four Iranian diplomats abducted in Lebanon in 1982 are currently incarcerated in Israeli jails and there is no evidence to suggest that they have been martyred.

On July 4, 1982, the year Israel invaded Lebanon, Ahmad Motevasselian, Seyyed Mohsen Mousavi, Taqi Rastegar Moqaddam and Kazem Akhavan were kidnapped by a group of Israeli-backed gunmen at an inspection post in northern Lebanon.

“Just as Samir Quntar [a Hezbollah commander] was imprisoned by the Zionist regime and released 30 years later despite Tel Aviv’s repeated denials, the four abducted Iranian diplomats have been serving 36 yeas in detention in the Zionist regime’s prisons, and there is no evidence pertaining to their death,” wrote Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a tweet on Thursday.

His remarks came as Iran marked the 36th anniversary of the kidnapping of four Iranian diplomats by the Israeli regime. The diplomats were Seyyed Mohsen Mousavi, Ahmad Motevaselian, Taqi Rastegar Moqaddam and Kazem Akhavan, who were kidnapped in July 1982 on Lebanese soil. Given that the Lebanese territory was occupied by Israeli regime at that time, Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that “there is enough evidence proving they were transferred to the occupied  lands.”