TEHRAN, Sept 27 (AFP) - An Iranian diplomat who was kidnapped in Iraq nearly two months ago was freed Monday and is safe in the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, the foreign ministry announced here.
"Following efforts by the Iranian foreign ministry and Iraqi officials ... Mr Jahani was freed today and he is safe in the Iranian embassy," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told AFP.
Fereydun Jahani went missing on August 4 on the road from Baghdad to the Shiite pilgrimage city of Karbala, where he had been appointed to open an Iranian consulate.
A group calling itself the Islamic Army of Iraq, which is also believed to be holding two French journalists, claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
It said on August 8 that it had detained Jahani "for stirring sectarian strife and for activities outside his diplomatic duties".
A video announcing Jahani's abduction showed the diplomat's business and identity cards, some bearing the logo of the Revolutionary Guards, often accused of leading Iranian operations in Iraq.
The same group is believed to have executed two Pakistanis in July for "collaboration" with the US-led military in Iraq.
The group had said it would "punish" Jahani if Iran did not release 500 Iraqis allegedly held since the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88. The government here responded that Iran had freed all its prisoners of war and that this had been confirmed by international organisations.