Iran Striving to Release Imam Musa Sadr

Iran is striving to find and release Imam Musa Sadr, said a member of the directing board of the Lebanese Amal movement, who took Libyan government responsible for the abduction of Sadr in 1979. Speaking to FNA on the threshold of the anniversary of the abduction of Imam Musa Sadr, the Iranian leader of the Lebanese Shiites, in Libya on August 31, 1979, Haj Khalil Hamdan, member of the directing board of Amal movement and secretary general of Amal’s educational institutes, said, “Libyan government is responsible for the abduction of Imam Musa Sadr and the Islamic Republic of Iran is endeavoring to find and release him, but there reside many obstacles on this path.”

He said Imam Musa Sadr was kidnapped because of his revolutionary ideas and because he was both a cleric and a politician who pioneered in the struggle against the Zionist regime.

“He issued many fatwas (religious decrees) against Israel… and described this regime as ‘the absolute devil’,” the Amal official said.

He further dismissed allegations that Sadr cooperated with the former Pahlavi regime in Iran, saying, “On the contrary, Sadr cooperated with the leaders of the Islamic Revolution.”

“Imam Musa Sadr received the leaders of the Islamic Revolution in Lebanon and provided them with an opportunity to travel to other world countries via Lebanon. After a meeting with the Pope in the Vatican in 1963, Imam Musa Sadr asked the Shah (the former Iranian king dethroned by the 1979 Islamic Revolution) to release Imam Khomeini. All these measures made the Shah to take his Iranian citizenship away. In response Imam Musa Sadr said ‘I will dethrone him’,” Hamdan added.

He said Lebanon, Amal movement and the family members of Imam Musa Sadr are pursuing the case of the Shiite leader.

Meantime, the Amal official said that Iran is doing its best to find and release Sadr, adding, “Iran has formed several committees to pursue this issue, including a parliament committee formed of seven MPs and another committee at the presidential office presided by vice president for legal affairs Seyed Ahmad Mousavi. Iran has given a top priority to the Issue of Imam Musa Sadr in its relations with Libya.”

“If there had existed a better way to exert pressure on Ghadafi, Iran would have done so long ago,” he said.