Tehran, March 5 (IANS): Iranian diplomat Nour Ahmad Nikbakht, kidnapped by a gunmen in Yemen's capital Sanaa in 2013, returned to Tehran on Thursday.

Nikbakht was kidnapped on July 21, 2013, on his way to work from his home in the diplomatic quarter of Sanaa, when unidentified gunmen blocked the road, forced him out of his vehicle and abducted him, Press TV reported.

Nikbakht's plane landed in Tehran's Mehrabad Airport earlier in the day. Following his arrival in Tehran, Nikbakht met Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

Amir-Abodllahian, for his part, said, Iran had set up a 'special committee involving all the relevant parties' to work toward Nikbakht's freedom.

"The efforts led to a special taskforce established by Iran's Intelligence Ministry,"said Amir-Abdollahian.

"Through a series of complex and arduous operations inside a restive region of Yemen, Nikhbakht was freed from the claws of the terrorists," Amir-Abdollahian added.