Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif defended the efforts of the administration of President Hassan Rouhani to secure the release of the kidnapped border guards against mounting criticism from conservatives who want the administration take more swift action against terrorists operating on the Iran-Pakistan border.

“Like many of you, the condition of the Iranian hostages has been mine and my colleagues’ biggest concern,” Zarif wrote on Facebook this morning, speaking of the five border guards kidnapped by the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl in February. One of them, Jamshid Danaeifar, who had a ten-day-old son, was killed last week by the group believed to be inside Pakistan.

“Our around-the-clock efforts [are focused on] the healthy return of these dear ones to the embrace of their families,” Zarif continued. “Propaganda and slogans, despite making one happy, not only do not help free these dear loved ones, but perhaps make the situation more complex.”

He wrote that he understood some of the “harsh criticism and even insults” were the result of emotions arising from the matter, but pointed out that he wrote a letter to the secretary-general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, about the guards. He also wrote that Rouhani and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif spoke for nearly an hour about the situation. He rejected criticism by some in Iran that Western countries take more action when their soldiers are kidnapped, writing, “Dozens of citizens from big countries in the West have been murdered by similar extremist groups in Afghanistan, Syria and Pakistan.”