Israeli Media's Account of the Fate of Ahmad Metuselyan and His Companions

Israeli media has recently published a report stating that the country, with the indirect cooperation of Iran and Hezbollah and the assistance of foreign mediators, sought to clarify the fate of an Israeli pilot captured and four missing Iranians in Lebanon. However, it was revealed that all of them were dead and no deal was made. Israeli media claims that the report prepared by the Israeli army had been classified until nearly thirty years after the capture of this pilot, but has now been declassified and authorized for publication. The report emphasizes that some of the efforts were very recent and continued until the last few months. According to Israeli newspapers, the report is the result of years of investigation by the army and various government groups, asserting that Ahmad Metuselyan and his three Iranian companions were killed in Lebanon and buried by Christian Phalangists, and that no trace of the Israeli pilot was ever found. Ahmad Metuselyan disappeared on July 4, 1982, during the first weeks of the Iranian military presence in Lebanon. In 1982, while the Iran-Iraq war was still ongoing, several members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps were sent to Lebanon to assist Lebanese militia forces in countering Israel, which had entered Lebanon under the pretext of fighting Palestinian Liberation Organization guerrillas. The Iranian military forces never confronted the Israelis directly, but their efforts led to the formation of the first resistance nuclei and the establishment of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Ahmad Metuselyan, the then-commander of the Mohammad Rasoulallah Brigade, was among the elite forces of the Revolutionary Guard in the Iran-Iraq war and had achieved successes for the Islamic Republic against armed Kurds in Kurdistan Province. He was the highest-ranking member of the Revolutionary Guard who remained in Lebanon but was supposed to return to Iran like other dispatched forces. One day before his return from Lebanon, Ahmad Metuselyan went for a 'short spin' in the surrounding streets but never returned. He was accompanied by Mohsen Mousavi, the Iranian embassy's chargé d'affaires, Kazem Akhavan, a photographer for the official Iranian news agency, and Taghi Rostgar Moghadam, an embassy employee. The Phalangists affiliated with Maronite Christians under Samir Geagea were fighting against the PLO guerrillas and also against the Shiite Amal organization and the splinter group 'Islamic Amal,' which had received support from Iran. These Phalangists stopped Ahmad Metuselyan's vehicle at a checkpoint and took them away. All investigations indicate that they were killed that same day. However, the Israeli army's presence in Lebanon continued until the spring of 2000; despite the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Beirut, it occupied a region in southern Lebanon for 18 years under the title of 'security belt.' During these years, the Israeli army bombed Palestinian positions and other armed Lebanese groups in various parts of Lebanon. In the fall of 1986, an Israeli Air Force fighter was dispatched for a bombing mission against PLO headquarters in Sidon, Lebanon; the fighter crashed due to shrapnel from one of the missiles fired by its own bomber. The Israeli army quickly dispatched special commandos and was able to find the pilot and return him to Israel, but Ron Arad, the co-pilot, landed with a parachute in an area where Amal militants quickly found and captured him. For two years after that, images along with at least two letters from Ron Arad were sent to his family. Israel, which had previously sent arms and munitions to Iran in the 'Iran Gate' deal, designated a special government task force to find Ron Arad's whereabouts, hoping to negotiate with Hezbollah and Amal. Some unconfirmed media reports at the time claimed that Ron Arad's abductors had sold him to Iran for money. Israel kidnapped Mustafa Dirani and several other officials of the Shiite Amal organization to extract information from them; these individuals remained in Israeli prison for years, but Israeli human rights organizations condemned this state kidnapping and pressured the government to release Mustafa Dirani and other Lebanese. Israel later offered a ten million dollar reward, also published in Persian in Los Angeles media, for anyone who could help clarify Ron Arad's whereabouts. However, these efforts were also fruitless. The newly released report states that after Western mediators and indirect joint efforts by Israel with Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon confirmed that Ron Arad was not alive and that the Christian Phalangists under Samir Geagea had killed and buried Ahmad Metuselyan and three other Iranians on the very first day of their confrontation, Israel closed the case of efforts to find Ron Arad. The report emphasizes that Imad Mughniyeh, the highest military official of Hezbollah, had formed a committee to find Ron Arad's trace to gain advantages for Hezbollah. This Hezbollah committee remained active even after the death of Imad Mughniyeh himself, and eventually, the burial sites of Ron Arad were excavated; the location of his grave had been changed multiple times. Hezbollah undertook excavations of these sites to confirm Ron Arad's death and conducted DNA tests on some of the remains, but it was found that none of the bones belonged to Ron Arad. According to the newly released report, in secret negotiations with the help of German mediators, Iran proposed that if Ron Arad's bones were found, they could be negotiated, but Iran insisted that Ahmad Metuselyan and three other missing Iranians be returned 'alive.' Israel has even been willing to make significant deals with Palestinian organizations and Hezbollah to retrieve the bones of its dead. A senior Israeli military cleric announced in 2004 that Ron Arad should be considered deceased, but Ariel Sharon, the then-prime minister, did not officially accept this report. According to Yedioth Ahronoth, the last round of Israel's efforts to clarify the whereabouts of Ron Arad and the four Iranians continued even until this spring in Cyprus, where representatives from Hezbollah and Iran were also present. Abolfazl Hassan Beigi, deputy chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security Commission, reacted to the recent reports published in Israeli media by stating, 'One can never trust the statements of the Zionist regime, and the claims of recent negotiations could merely be a psychological operation.' According to the website 'Mizan,' Hassan Beigi added, 'Haj Ahmad Metuselyan was definitely alive until two years ago.' Some of Ahmad Metuselyan's companions recently told 'Mashregh' in an interview that they are confident that Ahmad Metuselyan, given his warrior personality, had engaged in a confrontation with the Lebanese Phalangists in the early days of his capture and was killed. However, Hossein Dehghan, the current Iranian Minister of Defense, who was among the first Revolutionary Guard forces present in Lebanon in the early 1980s, stated in June, on the eve of the anniversary of Ahmad Metuselyan's abduction, that 'he and the other Iranians are alive and in the captivity of the Zionist regime.'