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Iran's Consulate closure has caused Visa
problems for Iraqi Kurds
21.1.2007 |
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January 21, 2007
The Iranians arrested by US forces from the Iranian
Consulate in Erbil has caused humanitarian problems
for Iraqi Kurds living in the province,
representative of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in
Tehran said on Saturday.
Nazem Dabbagh said that the closure of the Consulate
has deprived Iraqi Kurds and patients who had
applied for Iranian visas.
Dabbagh, who is also a representative of Iraq's
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) told IRNA that
the Consulate used to grant visas to more than 150
people living in Kurdistan province and the US
action has deprived the Iraqis of consular services
for Iraqi people.
He said that the US attempted to sabotage Iran's
relations with Iraqi Kurdistan province adding that
fortunately there is understanding between the two
parties.
Dabbagh said that President Talabani, Foreign
Minister Hoshyar Zebari and chief of Iraqi Kurdistan
administration are seriously seeking to secure
release of the Iranians.
The U.S. military said last week that five Iranians
held by its troops in Iraq are linked to
Revolutionary Guards who are arming and funding
Iraqi militants but Tehran called them diplomats and
demanded they be released.
One of five Iranians arrested by US forces in
Kurdistan-Iraq last week is the suspected leader of
a commando team that assassinated three Iranian
Kurds in Vienna in 1989, Austrian public radio has
reported.
Austria's Oe1 radio said on January 17 that one of
the arrested Iranians is Mohammad Jafari-Sahroudi,
implicated in the assassination of Dr. Abdul Rahman
Ghassemlou (Qasimlo), the head of the Kurdish
Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), his assistant and
another Kurdish exile.
Iran lodged a complaint with United Nations
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon against United States
for kidnapping Iranian from Iran's Consulate in
Erbil, Kurdistan autonomous region (Iraq).
The Consulate was set up in Erbil several years ago
under an agreement between Iran and the Iraqi
Kurdistan self rule government.
irna com | Agencies
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