Chairman of Iran Majlis (parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi said on Wednesday that Iran and Syria are making every effort to secure the release of the kidnapped pilgrims with the help of third parties including Turkey and Qatar.
He expressed hope that the abductees in Syria would return home the same as the seven Iranian aid workers who were released after 65 days of captivity in Libya on October 6, 2012.
Asked about a recent threat by Syrian terrorists about killing of kidnapped Iranian pilgrims, Boroujerdi stated that it was not the first time that the abductors had issued an ultimatum and the situation must be handled in a way that no one is harmed.
On August 4, 48 Iranian pilgrims, traveling on a bus from the Damascus International Airport to the shrine of Hazrat Zainab (AS) on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, were abducted by foreign-backed members of the terrorist Free Syrian Army (FSA).
In a video aired by the Saudi-owned television network Al-Arabiya this week, the insurgents threatened to kill all of the Iranian abductees if the Syrian government did not release captured anti-government insurgents and if it did not stop operations against armed groups in the country within 48 hours.
Following a phone call by Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim al-Thani urged the Syrian insurgents not to kill the Iranian pilgrims in an interview with Al Jazeera television.
Meanwhile, a member of Iran Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Abbas-Ali Mansouri, said on Tuesday that parliamentary delegations from Iran will visit Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to talk to those countries’ officials about the situation of Iranian hostages in Syria.
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