Ahmad Motevaselian

On 23 May 2016, Hossein Dehghan (minister of defense of Iran) stated that Ahmad Motevaselian and Iranian diplomats who disappeared in Lebanon, are alive and prisoner in the Israeli jails.

Standing in the Mist is a 2015 movie about Ahmad Motevaselian. Writer and director of the film was Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian and produced by Habibollah Valinezhad. The film was selected for 34th Fajr International Film Festival.

Eight years later Geagea said: "they had been killed on the orders of the group's intelligence chief, Elie Hobeika." According to an Israeli report, these men were killed by Lebanese forces. Israel claimed in a statement in 2010 that the diplomats had never been surrendered to Israel. Elsewhere in response to a request by the Lebanese Hezbollah, it claimed that the four were dead. But Iran has accused Israel of kidnapping and holding them in Israeli jails and covering up their fate. Also, Iran called on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to clarify their whereabouts. Israel has claimed that it is aware of the fate of diplomats, and that they were kidnapped by a Lebanese militant group and executed shortly after their abduction. It was believed (by whom?) that they were then buried at a site that was later obliterated by construction works.

Ahmad Motevaselian (Persian: احمد متوسلیان ‎), an Iranian military attaché, was one of four Iranians who disappeared in Lebanon in 1982. During the Iran–Iraq War, he was a commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and established the 27th Muhammad Rasool-Allah Division of Tehran. He played a role in the Liberation of Khorramshahr and later, as part of a senior diplomatic group of political and military leaders, went to Syria. On 5 July 1982, when the vehicle carrying the diplomats was passing through a checkpoint post on its way to Beirut, it was intercepted by Phalange Party. The car and four passengers, completely disappeared.

After the Liberation of Khorramshahr, Motevaselian knew that Israel had invaded Lebanon. In June 1982, he went to the Lebanese-Syrian border as head of a commando unit, but the unit was sent back to Iran by Syrian authorities but Motevaselian stayed for protecting Iran's embassy from Israeli and Phalange Party. On 5 July 1982, when the vehicle carrying the diplomats was passing through a checkpoint post on its way to Beirut, it was intercepted by Phalange Party, and the car and four passengers disappeared, despite diplomatic immunity and that they were using an official state vehicle. For the last time, Iranian diplomats were seen at Barbara checkpoint that controlled by Elie Hobeika. They were then abducted by the Phalange Party. The missing diplomats are Motevaselian, military attaché and the head of the commandos of the June dispatch; Seyed Mohsen Mousavi, chargé d'affaires for the Iranian embassy in Beirut; and Taghi Rastegar Moghadam, the embassy technician; plus Kazem Akhavan, a journalist for Islamic Republic Press Agency.

Ambush of July 1982 is calendar of events about kidnapping Iranian diplomats from 1982 to 2005, written by Hamid Davood-abadi حمید داودآبادی. This is valuable book for knowing what happened to the Iranian diplomats in Lebanon. English translation of book was unveiled by the head of Foundation for the preservation of relics and values of the Holy Defense, Mohammad Bagherzadeh. The book published by Chamran Foundation and Foundation for the preservation of relics and values of the Holy Defense in 292 pages.

After graduation, Motevaselian went to Shiraz for military service and participated in a special tank training course and was then dispatched to Sarpol-e Zahab. During his service, he continued his political activities against the Shah. After military service, he was employed in a private company and after a few months was sent to Khorramabad. In 1976, the SAVAK 'secret police' arrested him for his political activities. He was jailed for five months in solitary confinement in Falak-ol-Aflak Castle in Khorramabad. Motevaselian actively participated in the 1979 Revolution in his neighborhood and also the south of Tehran. After the victory of the Revolution, he established the Committee of the Islamic Republic in the district near his home, and later joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Ahmad Motevaselian was born in a religious family in 1954 in the south of Tehran. He spent his primary school in Mostafavi school in Tehran. During his education, Motevaselian helped his father in his pastry shop. When he was a teenager, he participated in religious ceremonies and masque and started his political activities against the then ruling regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. After finishing his primary education, he went to industrial school and received his diploma in 1973.