“ Sana’a is seriously following up on the issue and express optimism that Nour Ahmad Nikbakht will be freed in near future” Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, the Yemeni foreign minister told his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in a phone conversation on Thursday.

Nikbakht, an administrative staff member of the Iranian embassy in Yemen, was kidnapped by unknown gunmen while he was travelling in the diplomatic quarter in southern Sana’a on July 21, according to police sources in Yemen.

Armed men reportedly blocked the road, forced him to get out of his vehicle, and took him to an unknown location.

Iran is to dispatch a diplomatic delegation to Yemen next week to pursue the matter.

The Iranian foreign minister for his turn stressed that Tehran has always been an advocate of stability and unity in Yemen.

Last week Yemen’s Foreign Ministry has announced that it has no clues as to the whereabouts of the Iranian diplomat kidnapped in the Arab country more than one month ago.

The Yemeni government has no information on the location of the abducted Iranian diplomat and security authorities are currently making every effort to secure his release, Yemen's Saba News Agency quoted a Foreign Ministry official as saying.

MRKD/SHI