Armed men seized an employee of the Iranian embassy in Yemen’s capital Sanaa on Sunday, Reuters reported, the latest in a series of abductions of foreigners in the lawless Arab country.

The Iranian man was travelling through the diplomatic quarter in southern Sanaa when gunmen blocked the road, forced him to get out of his vehicle and took him to an unknown location, the sources told Reuters.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the kidnapping, they added.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi confirmed the incident.

The Yemeni foreign ministry and security forces have promised to closely and urgently pursue the case, an informed source at the Iranian embassy in Sanaa told the Mehr News Agency.

Also, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi made a phone call to his Yemeni counterpart, urging Yemeni officials to take serious measures to release the diplomat.

Upon the incident, Yemeni Charge d’affaires was summoned to Iran’s foreign ministry on the same day.

Yemen’s government is grappling with a host of challenges, including a separatist movement in the south and an Islamist insurgency, as it tries to restore authority lost during mass protests in 2011 that overthrew President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Disgruntled tribesmen also often take hostages to press the government to free jailed relatives or improve public services.

A Saudi diplomat based in Yemen’s southern port city of Aden has been held hostage by Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda since March 2012.

SourceL tehrantimes