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24 December 2013 - 16:52

Iranian diplomat Nour-Ahmad Nikbakht, who was kidnapped in Sana'a late in July, is in good health, an Iranian deputy foreign minister said, and underlined Tehran's resolve to pursue the fate of Nikbakht through diplomatic channels.

"Based on the available records, Nikbakht is in full health and Tehran-Sana'a joint efforts to secure is release are underway," Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian told the Iranian students news agency.

"We expect Yemeni officials to speed up their efforts to this end," he added.

Last Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said that the ministry summoned the Yemeni charge d’affaires to Tehran to explain about the fate of Nikbakht.

Afkham said Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Yemeni counterpart Abu Bakr Abdullah al-Qirbi have discussed Nikbakht’s fate during a phone call a day earlier.

Unknown assailants abducted the Iranian embassy staff member, Nikbakht, in Safr street in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, in late July.

In October, Iran called on Yemeni parliamentarians to seriously pursue the case with its abducted diplomat and shed light on his fate.

During a meeting with a visiting Yemeni parliamentary delegation in Tehran at the time, Amir Abdollahian noted that the Iranian officials, media, and public opinion are awaiting the official results of Yemen’s probe into the abduction case.

He further hailed the efforts exerted by the Yemeni government to ensure the release of Nikbakht, and called for more serious efforts of the Yemeni officials to this end.
 

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