The four Iranians kidnapped in Lebanon at the height of the civil war are alive and being held in "Israel", Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said.

The four Iranians kidnapped in Lebanon at the height of the civil war are alive and being held in "Israel", Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said.

“Regarding the four abducted Iranian diplomats, there are documents (which prove) they are alive and in the hands of the Zionist regime,” Ahmadinejad was quoted by Iran’s Fars News Agency as telling U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon during a meeting in New York on Saturday.

“It is therefore expected of the U.N. Secretary General to take serious measures for their release,” Ahmadinejad said.

The diplomats were kidnapped in 1982. Zionist entity at the time was carrying out a major military operation in Lebanon when the three men -- Mohsen Mousavi, Ahmad Motevaselian and Taghi Rastegar Moghadam -- disappeared, along with Kazem Akhaven, a photographer with Iran's official IRNA news agency.

Reports say the four Iranians were seized by a Christian militia.