Posted on 01/19/2007 7:38:32 AM PST by Valin
TEHRAN, (Reuters) - Iran said on Friday it would soon lodge a complaint with the U.N. Security Council about the arrest by U.S. troops of five Iranians, who Washington says were backing militants in Iraq but who Tehran says are diplomats. U.S. soldiers seized the men in a raid on an Iranian government office in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil on Jan. 11, hours after U.S. President George W. Bush pledged to crack down on the "flow of support" from Iran to Iraqi militants.
Washington regularly accuses Iran of encouraging violence in Iraq, a charge Tehran dismisses saying the U.S. occupiers are destabilising the country. Iran has demanded the immediate release of the Iranians. "Soon we will complain to the Security Council and the United Nations for this adventurism by America," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on state television. He did not say when Iran would take such a step. "Instead of securing Iraq, America is following heathen aims," he said, adding that the United States wanted "to make regional countries face off with Iran". Tehran accuses Washington of trying to line up nearby Arab countries, who are dominated by Sunni Muslims, against Iran, which like Iraq has a Shi'ite Muslim majority.
The arrest on Jan. 11, the second such detention in a month, have heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran, already at loggerheads over Iran's nuclear programme which U.S. officials say is aimed at making atomic bombs.
Iran insists its aims are civilian and part of plans to generate electricity.
And the dog ate my homework
The check is in the mail
Really officer I wasn't aware I was speeding
UH-OH they're going to the UN! We better watch out or we'll get a stern letter in 5 or 10 years about this.
They'll be released by Monday.
hi, my name is himno hero
I'm with the government, and I'm here to help you
I remember the time the UN dealt with the issue of diplomatic immunity in 1979.
Kofi will listen, then chide the USA.
Dear Iranians. Remember when you took the American Embassy staff hostage and held them for 444 days? Well, as far as the United States is concerned, you forfeited your own diplomatic immunity at that time, and we have not seen you do anything to restore it. Quite to the contrary.
So don't even bother with that "they were diplomats" stuff, we will treat them as spies.
Exactly!
Iran's response to the UN's complaints against Iran makes this issue laughable.
Kofi ain't there anymore.
Kofi ain't there anymore.
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True -- wow, we are so used to bad news, that a piece of good news gets lost in my mind :-)
Yeah, bad news does tend to drive good news out. It's the truism that the media survives on.
The more they complain the more we know how important the arrest was....................
And maybe this was our push to wait for their shove?
Hope so.
If they can get enough "member states" to agree on a stern but not inflammitory font.
I wish this story were something more along the lines of "Remnants of Former Iranian Government To Complain To UN Over Multiple Nuclear Strikes All Across Their Country."
Don't worry they'll be released shortly, just like last time... Remember, the US is there only to assist the Iraqi goverment.
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