Iran race against time to free kidnapped hostages



Tehran, Dec 9 - Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said here on Tuesday that Iran's security authorities are seriously working for release of three foreign nationals held hostage in southeast Iran.

Kharrazi told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting of the"special working group to compile the convention for the legal regime of the Caspian sea" that the police, the information ministry and the ministry of the interior have launched serious efforts to resolve the issue.

He further added that the foreign nationals had not informed the police when they left their residence.

Earlier in the day, the security chief of Sistan-Baluchestan governor general's office, Gholam-Reza Javdan, told reporters that he had been informed of the abduction of two Germans and one Irish by an anonymous phone caller.

Javdan also added that the hostage-takers had asked for a ransom of five million euros.