Iranian-British Merchant Allegedly Abducted in Iraq and Handed Over to Revolutionary Guards

Al-Arabiya’s Persian service reported that an Iranian-British merchant named “Seyyed Mohammad Khatami” was “abducted” in Iraq and “handed over” to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

According to the report, this dual-national citizen, known as “Abu Wafa,” had traveled to Karbala and Najaf “to spend the nights of Qadr.”

Al-Arabiya wrote, without naming a specific group, that “an Iraqi paramilitary group affiliated with Iran” “abducted” the merchant and “handed him over” to Iran.

The report also stated that Khatami was “handed over” on Monday night, the twentieth of Ordibehesht.

Mohammad Khatami was described in the report as an individual from a “religious” family who was born in Iraq and whose “father was among the friends” of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.

Al-Arabiya published a photo of Mohammad Khatami alongside Abolhassan Banisadr, Iran’s first president, and wrote that he, who also played a role in the establishment of the Revolutionary Guards, left Iran after Banisadr’s dismissal.

Neither the Iranian nor Iraqi governments have yet commented on this report.

Previously, Ruhollah Zam, a journalist and political activist critical of the Islamic Republic, was also abducted in Iraq and handed over to Iran, after which he was executed.

Source: Radio Farda