Japan's Turn
First, it was Afghanistan as the hostage-grabbing leader in Eurasia, now there's a Japanese student in southeastern Iran.
Asked about the possibility of Iran paying a ransom or exchanging captives, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a televised news conference on Monday:
«There has been news about this ... that there should be a money exchange or what, but this is illegal.»
Iran was seeking to secure the student's release and was hoping he would be freed, Hosseini said.
«We know that the gentleman is alive .... we are making certain efforts to release him.»
Last Thursday an unnamed Iranian official was quoted as saying the kidnappers had offered to exchange the student for the jailed son of their gang leader.
Southeastern Iran has been the scene of numerous clashes between the military and well-armed drug smugglers.
Other tourists, including a couple from Belgium, have been abducted recently. Some have been held for weeks as kidnappers tried to secure the release of relatives from jail.
Iran's border regions with Afghanistan and Pakistan are a major smuggling route for drugs and other contraband. More than 3,300 Iranian security personnel have died in the region fighting drug traffickers since Iran's 1979 revolution.
But, to a question the Asahi Daily also asks, what is a student volunteering to teach English and Japanese originally in Nepal doing now in Iran?
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