An Iranian diplomat said Thursday that four Iranians who disappeared in Lebanon in 1982 are alive in Israel and called for their release.

All the information Iran has indicates the Iranians are in Israel, said Mojtaba Ferdoussi, charge d’affaires at the Iranian Embassy in Lebanon.

The Iranians were seized in Beirut in 1982. Tehran says they were kidnapped by militiamen from the Lebanese Forces who delivered them to Israel. Israel has long denied holding them.

“These assertions that the Iranian diplomats are in Israel are totally unsubstantiated and completely baseless,” Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Thursday.

Ferdoussi spoke at a news conference marking the 26th anniversary of their disappearance. It came a day after Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said Israel will provide information on the four Iranians as part of a prisoner exchange.

Samir Geagea, former head of the disbanded Lebanese Forces, told a newspaper in 1996 that the Iranians were killed by members of his militia.

Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, taking over large areas as part of a military blitz to expel Palestinian guerrillas.

Ferdoussi spoke before a large poster of the Iranians _ charge d’affaires Mohsen Musavi, diplomat Ahmad Motovasselian, photographer Kazem Akhavan and driver Mohammad Taqi Rastgar Moghaddam.

Raed Musavi, son of the former charge d’affaires, said former prisoners in Israel have confirmed seeing the Iranians alive in Israeli prisons.