Iran: 'We Have No Information on Ron Arad'

The Islamic Republic does not have Ron Arad. Nor do Iranian officials have any information on his fate, according to Interior Minister Mustafa Pour-Mohammadi, who added that four Iranian diplomats also disappeared in the 1980s.

“If you have the address where he is being held, give it to us so we can go and get him,” he taunted in an interview published Friday in the Kuwaiti daily Mishkat al-Rai. Israel has maintained that Iran has been involved in the matter for decades.

Hizbullah chief terrorist Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech last week that his terror group had searched for the missing IAF navigator, without success. The remarks came after Israel and Hizbullah completed a swap in which two dead terrorists and one live, but ill operative were traded for the body of an Israeli civilian who drowned off the northern coast two years ago.

Included in the deal were documents that provided details of Hizbullah’s efforts to locate Arad or learn his fate; it is believed that Lebanese terrorists transferred the captured airman to Iran via Syria.

Also in the package was a letter Arad wrote to his wife, apparently shortly after he was captured. Arad was forced to bail out of his F-4 Phantom when it was shot down over Lebanon on October 6, 1986.

Israeli officials confirmed this week that the letter to Arad’s wife Tami was indeed written by her husband; its authenticity was verified by his use of a nickname he used to call her. The letter spoke of his love for his wife and their daughter Yuval.

Ron Arad was captured by the Lebanese Shi’ite militia, Amal. The leader of that group, Nabhi Berri, is today the pro-Hizbullah Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament. Berri and his allies have demanded more Cabinet representation in the Lebanese coalition government, which has refused the demand out of concern that it would give Hizbullah and its pro-Syrian allies an effective veto power.

Three letters in Arad’s handwriting and two photos of the navigator wearing a beard were handed over to the Israelis by Lebanon in 1987, allegedly proving that he was still alive.  Berri offered to exchange Arad for Shi’ite and Lebanese prisoners held in Israel, but talks broke down in 1988.

It is believed that Amal turned Arad over to the Hizbullah terrorist group, which then “sold” the captive airman to members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who were in Lebanon aiding the Hizbullah terrorists at the time.