Iran on Sunday rejected conditions set by a group holding a top Iranian diplomat hostage in Baghdad, saying Tehran was not holding Iraqi prisoners to exchange. The group holding Iranian diplomat Faridoun Jihani has said it would release him if Iran frees 500 Iraqi prisoners it is holding, the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera television station reported early Sunday. It said Iran has held the prisoners since the Iran-Iraq war that ended in 1988 and the first Gulf War that ended in 1991. But Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi told The Associated Press that there are no Iraqi prisoners in Iran nor Iranian prisoners in Iraq. "The prisoners of war issue between Iran and Iraq is over," Abtahi said. "Current Iraqi officials, some of whom have been in Iran for years dealing with the POW issue, know better than others that there are no Iraqi prisoners in Iran," he said.
