Tehran asks Turkey and Qatar to help free 48 held in Syria

DUBAI – Iran has asked Turkey and Qatar to help secure the release of 48 Iranians seized by rebels in Syria on suspicion of being…

DUBAI – Iran has asked Turkey and Qatar to help secure the release of 48 Iranians seized by rebels in Syria on suspicion of being military personnel but who Tehran says are pilgrims.

Syrian rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad accuse Iran of sending fighters from its Revolutionary Guard to help Mr Assad’s forces put down the 17-month uprising.

Tehran denies the charge and says the group was on a religious pilgrimage to Syria. Iranian media said on Saturday that the 48 were abducted from a bus in Damascus, the latest in a string of kidnappings of visitors from the Islamic Republic, a country allied to the Assad regime. An unnamed official at the Iranian foreign ministry denied those kidnapped were military personnel, the state news agency IRNA reported.

Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Qatari counterpart Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani agreed to seek the Iranians’ release during separate phone conversations with Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi, IRNA said yesterday.

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Tehran has accused Turkey and Qatar of helping rebels fighting to topple Mr Assad. Several Iranians previously abducted in Syria have been released to Turkish authorities.

But Syrian rebels said they were not in contact with any country over the release of the Iranians.

“Negotiations with parties inside or outside Syria are not open yet before we confirm the identity of the Iranians and prove that Iran is active on Syrian lands with its soldiers and arms,” Capt Abdel Nasser al-Shumair, commander of the Free Syrian Army, said in an interview. – (Reuters)