By: (AP) Iran's government summoned the top Iraqi envoy in Tehran to protest the arrest in Baghdad of several reporters for Iran's state news agency and the kidnapping of an Iranian diplomat.
The arrests and abduction are the latest in a series of events souring relations between the neighbors amid claims Iran has been aiding Iraqi insurgents fighting U.S.-led forces.
An Iranian Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity Thursday, confirmed a report that Iraq's charge d'affaires to Tehran, Khalil Salman al-Sabihi, was called to a meeting Wednesday by an Iranian official, who demanded the "quick release" of the reporters.
Later Thursday, the managing director of Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency, Abdollah Nasseri Taheri, sent a letter to Iraq's culture minister demanding that his journalists be freed immediately.
Iran says Iraqi police on Monday arrested Mostafa Darban, the Baghdad bureau chief for IRNA, and three Iraqi staffers without explaining why they were detained.
Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim said he was unaware any IRNA staff members had been detained.
In a report late Wednesday, IRNA said the Foreign Ministry official also demanded details about the fate of Iranian diplomat Faridoun Jihani, who was kidnapped July 4 while traveling from Baghdad to the southern Iraqi city of Karbala.
On Wednesday, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said Jihani might be released in the coming days.
An Iraqi armed group, called the Army of Islam, said it had kidnapped Jihani and claimed he had been engaged in raising sectarian differences in Iraq.
Tensions have been heightening in recent weeks between Iraq and Iran, which fought a 1980-1988 war that is believed to have killed 1 million people from both sides.
Last month, Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan said Iran was Iraq's "first enemy" because it allegedly was playing a role in arming Iraqi Shiite militants battling U.S.-led coalition forces, including in Najaf, where fierce fighting continues between American troops and fighters loyal to firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani rejected Shaalan's remarks as propaganda, while Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi distanced his government from the remarks.
On Tuesday, deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the United States was concerned about allegations of Iranian involvement in the unrest in Najaf, the third-holiest shrine to the world's nearly 120 million Muslim Shiites.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here