Iran welcomed Thursday the release of Lebanese prisoners freed by Israel Wednesday as part of a prisoner swap deal with the Hezbollah guerrilla group, the Khaber news network has reported.

'The happy news of the release of Lebanese prisoners by the Zionist regime (Israel) was part of the achievements of the Islamic resistance of the Hezbollah group and dear nation of Lebanon,' Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in a press statement.

'This is the result of long and courageous resistance by Lebanon and regional states and we congratulate this great victory,' he added.

On Wednesday, Israel released five Lebanese prisoners, four from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Samir Kuntar, who was jailed in 1979 after carrying out an attack in which four Israelis were killed. In return, Hezbollah handed over the bodies of two Israeli soldiers snatched in a cross-border raid on July 12, 2006.

The Iranian foreign minister also called on Israel to release all Palestinian prisoners and provide information on the fate of three Iranian diplomats and one photographer missing since 1982.

As part of the prisoner exchange deal, Israel is to give Hezbollah a report on the fate of the four Iranians.

Israel has previously said it does not know what happened to the four, who were arrested at a roadblock by Israel's Christian Phalange allies in north Lebanon in 1982 and are believed to have subsequently been executed.