Five Iranian Pilgrims Back to Freedom, Tehran Welcomes
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast welcomed on Saturday "the freedom of five Iranian pilgrims who had been abducted in Syria."
According to the Information and Press Bureau of the Ministry of Iranian Foreign Affairs, Mehmanparast also thanked "the efforts made by Turkish officials as well as the country's foreign ministry for release of Iranian pilgrims."
He expressed the hope "to witness the release of other Iranian pilgrims along with five experts abducted in Syria."
Meanwhile, the abducted pilgrims arrived in Tehran on Saturday, two days after their release through Turkey.
On Friday, the Iranian Embassy in Ankara revealed that the abductees had been released at the Syria-Turkey border and were in the southern Turkish city of Hatay.
The men were then transferred to Istanbul and handed over to the Iranian consulate in the city to arrange their return to Iran.
The five Iranians had been seized in late January by gunmen who attacked a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims en route to Damascus.
Among the Iranian nationals still held by Syrian armed groups in Syria are seven technicians and engineers kidnapped in the restive city of Homs back in December.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org
Comments
- Related News
