Iranian MP touts cooperation in Sadr investigation

Source: Agencies & Daily Star, 8-9-2008
Iranian MP Gholamreza Mesbahi-Moqaddam said on Saturday that Iran and Lebanon will jointly pursue the disappearance of Imam Moussa Sadr.
Mesbahi-Moqaddam made a visit to Lebanon last week at the head of an Iranian parliamentary delegation.
"In this visit it was agreed to have a joint cooperation to pursue the case to determine the fate of Imam Moussa Sadr," he told Mehr News Agency.
"We traveled to Lebanon at the invitation of the Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri," the legislator added.
Mesbahi-Moqaddam said he has received no new information on the fate of the imam.
The MP added that during his visit to Beirut he held talks with Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Senior Shiite cleric Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, as well as Imam Sadr's son Sayyed Sadreddine Sadr.
"In this visit, we exchanged information regarding Imam Sadr's disappearance," he said.
"We told the Lebanese what we knew on the case, and in return the Lebanese briefed us about the information they gathered and the progress made," he added.
Sadr was a prominent Lebanese Shiite figure who was kidnapped during a visit to Libya in August 1978.
Recently, there have been some reports that Libya has announced its readiness to cooperate to determine the cleric's fate.
During a massive rally in the South Lebanese city of Nabatieh last week, Speaker Nabi Berri, who heads the Amal movement that Sadr founded, held Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi responsible for the disappearance of , the cleric.
"We tell the leader of the Libyan regime Moammar Gadhafi: You are personally responsible for the disappearance of Imam Moussa al-Sadr," Berri said in a speech.
"Let no one think that we will forget or make any compromise," he added.
Addressing the Libyan leader, Berri warned, "your tactics and maneuvers will not change anything ... We insist on revealing the truth in the case of Imam Moussa al-Sadr and his two companions." In August, Lebanon issued an arrest warrant for Gadhafi over the disappearance of the imam on August 31, 1978.
Libya has denied involvement in Sadr's disappearance, saying he left Libya for Italy. But the Italian government has always denied that he ever arrived there. However, Italian authorities in 2004 returned a passport found in Italy that allegedly belonged to the imam.