Posted on 06/29/2002 3:30:18 PM PDT by knighthawk
BAGHDAD, June 28 (AFP) - Iraq has complained to the United Nations about recurrent Iranian "violations" of the 1988 cease-fire that ended an eight-year war between the two neighbors, the official INA news agency reported Friday.
"Iran violated the cease-fire 41 times between the beginning of February and May 15," Iraq's UN representative Mohammad al-Duri said in a letter to Secretary General Kofi Annan.
The violations included "numerous overflights of Iraqi positions by Iranian planes and helicopters ... and firing by Iranian troops (at Iraqi territory) that left a number of Iraqi citizens wounded," Duri wrote.
Although Baghdad and Tehran have gone some way toward burying the hatchet, they have yet to sign a formal peace treaty 14 years after the end of their devastating conflict which cost around one million lives.
Obstacles to normalization of ties include the issue of war prisoners and the hosting of each other's dissident groups.
Wish I could be as optimistic. Seems like the state department has to stick its nose into every little conflict no matter how insignificant or harmful to American interests. Its the bureaucratic way.
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