Iran has asked Turkey and Qatar to help secure the release of 48 Iranian pilgrims seized in the Syrian capital by fighters, who said they were checking their identities and would show they were involved in fighting opponents of President Bashar al Assad.

Iranian media said on Saturday that a bus load of Iranians were abducted by gunmen while on a pilgrimage in Syria, the latest in a string of kidnappings of visitors from the Islamic Republic, a country allied to Assad.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Qatari counterpart Shaikh Hamad Bin Jassim bin Jabr al Thani agreed to seek the pilgrims’ release during separate phone conversations with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran’s state news agency IRNA said yesterday.
Tehran has accused Turkey and Qatar of helping fighters fighting to topple Assad, a close ally Iran has praised for promising political reforms. Several Iranians previously abducted in Syria though have been released to Turkish authorities before returning to Iran.

But the fighters said they were not in contact with any country over the release of the Iranians.

“Negotiations with parties inside or outside Syria are not open yet before we confirm the identity of the Iranians and prove that Iran is active on Syrian lands with its soldiers and arms,” Captain Abdel Nasser al Shumair, commander of the Al Baraa brigade of the Free Syrian Army said in an interview with Dubai-based Al Arabiya television.

Syrian fighters accuse Iran of sending fighters from its Revolutionary Guard to help Assad’s forces put down an uprising against his regime. Tehran denies the charges.

The interview was aired after the broadcast of a video showing armed men checking the identity cards of the kidnapped Iranians.