Roknabadi Says Contacts Ongoing to Release Abducted Pilgrims

Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Roknabadi stressed on Saturday that contacts are ongoing to release the 11 abducted Lebanese pilgrims in the Syrian province of Aleppo.

“The important thing is that they are safe and we hope that they would be released soon,” Roknabadi told reporters after holding talks with Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun in his residence in Rabieh.

The whereabouts of the pilgrims remains unknown, however, a previously unknown armed group calling itself the "Syrian Revolutionaries -- Aleppo Province" announced Thursday that it is holding the Lebanese pilgrims who went missing in Syria on May 22.

"The kidnapped Lebanese are being looked after by us and are in good health," the group said in a statement received by Qatar-based satellite news channel al-Jazeera.

However, Abu Abdullah al-Halabi, the official spokesman for the “Syrian Revolutionary Council for Aleppo and its Countryside” denied on Friday that his council had anything to do with the group which claimed its responsibility for the kidnapping.

Asked if the region will slide into war, Roknabadi pointed out that the situation in the Middle East can’t bear a war.

“We are exerting efforts to find a solution for (the developments) away from this option,” he added.

The Iranian ambassador said that he tackled with Aoun the latest developments in Lebanon and the region and the bilateral relations between the two countries.