|
Iran threatens to close borders with
Kurdistan: Talabani
23.9.2007
|
|
|
|
September
23, 2007
Baghdad, -- Iraqi President Jalal Talabani
sent a letter to the U.S. envoy to Baghdad and the
U.S. top military commander, in which he said that
Iran threatened to close its borders with Iraq's
Kurdistan region if U.S. forces did not release a
detained Iranian national, Talabani's office said on
Saturday.
"President Talabani sent a letter to Ambassador
Crocker and U.S. top military commander in Iraq
Petraeus, in which he expressed dissatisfaction with
the U.S. forces' arrest of an Iranian delegation
member while on an official commercial mission in
Kurdistan region," Talabani's office said.
The statement added "The U.S. forces arrested Aghai
Mahmoudi Farhadi who was on an official commercial
mission in Kurdistan and his mission was recognized
by both the federal and region governments."
"Iran threatened to close its borders with Iraq's
Kurdistan if Farhadi was not released, a move that
might cause losses to the commerce in the region,"
the statement quoted Talabani as saying.
The Iraqi president, who regarded the arrest as "an
insult to the government in Kurdistan region,"
demanded that the U.S. official act toward releasing
the detainee for the good of "Kurdistan region's
interests and Iraqi-Iranian relations."
The U.S. army said in a statement on Thursday that
U.S. forces in Iraq arrested "a suspected member of
an Iranian elite unit that has been accused of
training and equipping insurgents in Iraq."
"The suspect, who was not identified, is a member of
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - Quds
Force," the army said in the statement.
The U.S. military calls the force "a covert action
arm of the Iranian government responsible for aiding
lethal attacks against the Iraqi government and
coalition forces."
The military noted the Quds Force suspect was
involved in bringing roadside bombs from Iran into
Iraq, and in training foreign militants in Iraq.
The man, captured in the Iraqi Kurdish city of
Sulaimaniyah, is one of several Iranians held under
U.S. custody in Iraq. Later on Thursday, the Iranian
embassy in Baghdad sent a letter to Iraqi foreign
ministry strongly protesting the arrest of an
Iranian trade delegation member by the U.S. forces
in Sulaimaniyah in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq'.
The spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry,
Mohammad-Ali Hosseini, told Iranian news agency IRNA
"This is an aggressive act against the international
conventions, aimed at harming relations with Iraqi
government and it is a blatant violation of the
responsibilities of the occupying forces regarding
the relations of the Iraqi government with its
neighbors."
VOI
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 