A former hostage in Iran has said that the UN World Tourism Organization is helping the Islamic Republic’s policy of hostage diplomacy by pro-Iran fabrications.

In an article published by the Jerusalem Post on Thursday, Barry Rosen said the United Nations body is a prominent promoter of Iran as safe destination for foreign nationals.

Rosen was taken hostage in Tehran in 1979 after the Islamic Republic was established when militants took over the US embassy in Tehran and seized the diplomatic staff, holding them hostage for 444 days.

He urged the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) to expose and oppose outright lies and distortions that cast doubt on official warnings against travel to Iran to stop its decades-long hostage diplomacy.

The United Stated, Britain, Canada and many others tell their citizens that tourists in Iran are at tremendous risk of being taken hostage by the regime, but such messages are undermined by the UNWTO and its head, Zurab Pololikashvili, a Georgian diplomat, who is depends on Iran’s support for his job because the regime is a member of the UNWTO Executive Council.

Rosen wrote that the UNWTO held its 40th anniversary conference in Tehran three years ago -- the same city where foreign tourists are held captive, tortured and abused --, when the UN agency announced it is “willing to introduce Iran as a safe and peaceful destination… to attract more and more tourists to Iran”.