File photo: Iranian university students holding pictures of the Iranian diplomats kidnapped in Lebanon in 1982.

Beirut, 2008 July 3, Alalam/IRNA

Iran's embassy in Lebanon said on Thursday that its four nationals, seized in 1982 by a Christian militia in Lebanon, are still alive and being held in the occupied territory.

The embassy made the statement to mark the 26th anniversary of their kidnapping, and said the information was based on statements by former detainees released from the occupying Israeli regime's prisons.

It also comes at a time that the regime is due to provide details on the case as part of a prisoner swap deal with Hezbollah.

Charge d'affaires Mojtaba Ferdowsi-Pour said: "Our brother diplomats kidnapped in 1982 during the Zionist invasion of Lebanon are still detained in Israel and all news which has been provided to us prove it."

Meanwhile, deputy head of the Shia Higher Council of Lebanon Sheikh Abdullah Abdul Amir Qabalan underscored the need for clarifying the fate of abducted Iranian diplomats soon in a meeting with families of the four Iranian diplomats.

The Israeli regime at the time was carrying out a major military invasion in Lebanon when the three diplomats -- Mohsen Mousavi, Ahmad Motevaselian and Taghi Rastegar Moghadam -- disappeared, along with Kazem Akhaven, a photographer with Iran's IRNA news agency.

Raed, son of one of Mohsen Mousavi, said: "Documents and testimonies by detainees in Israeli prisons, and the fact that Israel has not published any documents proving their martyrdom, shows our loved ones are still alive."

Israel is due to provide details of their fate to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon as part of an exchange deal involving the regime's soldiers captured by Hezbollah and Lebanese prisoners held by the regime.

Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, in July 2006, just before the 34-day war in Lebanon.

On Sunday, the Zionist regime's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the cabinet the two were dead, while Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday said his movement had not passed any details on their fate to the Israelis.