Arrested Iranian diplomats to be released this week - envoy

BBC Monitoring ^ | January 20 2007

[knighthawk]

Text of report in English by Iranian news agency IRNA website

Baghdad, 20 January: Five Iranian diplomats arrested in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil nine days ago could be released this week, an Iranian envoy said here Saturday [20 January].

Speaking to IRNA, Iranian Ambassador to Baghdad Hasan Kazemi-Qomi said that the Iraqi government has promised to free the diplomats.

"The host country is responsible for safeguarding diplomatic bureaus and missions. The Iraqi government has made efforts to release the Iranian consular officials since the early hours of this incident," he said.

US forces broke into Iran's consulate in Arbil on 11 January after disarming its guards and using force to break open the gate of the consulate building.

They ransacked the place, arrested six consular staff (one of which has since been released) which they took away along with the consulate's computers and documents to an unknown place.

The Islamic Republic of Iran Friday wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon protesting against the storming of the consulate and arrest of its diplomats.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hoseyni on 14 January said that all activities of its consulate in Arbil were legal, official and endorsed by Iraqi officials, and recalled that the consulate in Arbil was officially inaugurated in 1992 upon an agreement signed by Iranian and Iraqi officials.

Kazemi-Qomi stressed that such wilful violation of international conventions by Washington would have no negative impact on the friendly and historical ties between neighbouring states Iran and Iraq.

Source: IRNA website, Tehran, in English 1050 gmt 20 Jan 07

[knighthawk]

Ping

[SolidWood]

could be released this week, an Iranian envoy said here

dream on... Unless an authorized American officials makes a statement, it's bullcrap.

[iopscusa]

Maybe or maybe not???

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Speaking to IRNA, Iranian Ambassador to Baghdad Hasan Kazemi-Qomi said that the Iraqi government has promised to free the diplomats.

Well, that's the rub isn't it, considering that the ROE's have finally been changed, and political interference from the Iraqis is supposedly not to be tolerated anymore in these matters.

[edpc]

the friendly and historical ties between neighbouring states Iran and Iraq.

Oh, really? I guess that whole conflict from 80-88 was a big misunderstanding.

[Go Gordon]

GPS

[showme_the_Glory]

Got the intel. Let the little rats run back to their mommies to see who else is in their little network pulling their strings.

[FARS]

UPDATE: They are already long gone.

http://noiri.blogspot.com/2007/01/behind-iraq-iran-capture-news.html

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

So much we will never know for years that our intel and military makes seemingly 'silly" decisions.

[Grimmy]

There's always the potential that keeping these ones would have caused our folk in Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere to get grabbed up and 'show trialled'.

Things are rarely as cut and dried, direct as they should appear.

[AdmSmith]

They are not released yet.

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

How do we know that a microchip wasn't planted in their ...errr...colon and the sats will be tracking them?

[potlatch]

Thanks for the ping FARS

[Grimmy]

Thanks for the correction :)

Sometimes I think I should actually "read for comprehension" on some of the articles... just to try something different.

[Grimmy]

Thanks for the ping.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[gonzo]

Hi sweetie! Long time!!! ............. FRegards

[gonzo]

Theng-kyew, pal. ............. FRegards

[Alamo-Girl]

Hi there, gonzo! *smooch*