US responsible for hostages' lives in Syria - Iran

IRAN: Iran said Tuesday that it was holding the United States responsible for the lives of 48 of its citizens taken hostage in Syria, following an unconfirmed report by a Syrian rebel group that three of them had been killed by shelling.

The foreign ministry, which transmitted its message through the Swiss embassy in Tehran that handles US interests in the absence of Iran-US diplomatic ties, insisted the 48 were pilgrims, not Revolutionary Guards as the rebels claimed.

"Because of the United States' manifest support of terrorist groups and the dispatch of weapons to Syria, the United States is responsible for the lives of the 48 Iranian pilgrims abducted in Damascus," Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian quoted the letter as saying.

He told the official IRNA news agency that "we expect the countries that are in a way responsible for the events in Syria to take the necessary measures to ensure the safety and lives of the Iranian pilgrims and their return to Iran."

He stressed that Iran had appealed for help from both Turkey and Qatar, two governments it accuses of arming the Syrian rebels.

Iran's message was issued after a Syrian rebel group, Al-Baraa Brigade of the Free Syrian Army, claimed on its Facebook page that "three of the Iranian prisoners were killed in fierce shelling" by the army in Damascus on Monday.

The page said the group's leader, Abdel Nasser Shmeir, was threatening to "execute the prisoners who are proven members of the Revolutionary Guard if the shelling continues."

AFP