Posted on 04/28/2003 11:54:28 AM PDT by knighthawk
Tehran, April 28, IRNA -- Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi here on Monday warned Iranian pilgrims not to visit Shiite holy shrines in Iraq.
Addressing reporters, he stressed that the Islamic Republic of Iran has no plan to dispatch any pilgrims to the holy sites in Iraq until an Iraqi government is established.
During a conference of Iraqi dissident groups which opened in Baghdad this morning, he said that the Iraqi groups may decide themselves whether to take part in the confab or not.
"The Islamic Republic does not interfere in Iraqi domestic affairs," he stressed.
Reiterating the need for a democratic government to be established in the war-torn country, he expressed the hope that the Iraqi people would be given the right to decide their future government.
"We should wait and see what the Baghdad confab will decide and whether it will move in line with the aspirations of the people or not," Asefi said.
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