Salehi: Iran Urges UN to Help Determine Fate of Ali Reza Asgari

Iran's caretaker Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi urged the United Nations to help determine the fate of Iranian former deputy defense minister who reportedly died in an "Israeli" prison.

Asgari mysteriously disappeared in Turkey in 2007. He was believed to have been abducted and transferred to the "Israeli" prisons. A Ynet report on Tuesday stated that a prisoner had committed suicide in solitary confinement in "Israel's" Ayalon prison.

The Eurasia Review website claimed that a source within the "inner circle" of the "Israeli" War Ministry had identified the prisoner as Asgari and that his death could have been murder and not suicide.

"Publication of such reports strengthens suspicions over the abduction of aforementioned individual Asgari by the Zionist regime of "Israel"," Salehi said in a message to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday, reported Press TV. Salehi said "Israel" must therefore be held accountable for the health and safety of the former Iranian deputy defense minister.

Asgari's abduction has taken place "against all recognized principles of international law and is an explicit example of the Zionist regime's state terrorism," Salehi said. The matter calls for proper reaction from the international community especially from institutions responsible for maintaining international peace and security, he added.