Iraq Official Critical of Iranian Move
By EDITH M. LEDERER
Sep 30, 2007
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Iraq's foreign minister says Iran is punishing the Kurdish
region for something the Kurdish authorities were not responsible for — the
arrest of an Iranian official by the U.S. military on Sept. 20.
Hoshyar Zebari said late Saturday that he raised the issue of Iran's closure of
five border crossing points into the northern Kurdish region with Iranian
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on the sidelines of the U.N. General
Assembly's ministerial meeting.
Zebari said he told Mottaki "this is not a wise move, this can only undermine
the atmosphere of confidence, and you're punishing the whole region for an act
that they were not responsible for."
The U.S. military said the Iranian, Mahmudi Farhadi, was a member of the Quds
Force, a branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards alleged to smuggle weapons
to Shiite extremists.
The arrest has raised friction between U.S. and Iraqi authorities at a time when
tempers were already running high over the killing Sept. 16 of 11 Iraqi
civilians allegedly by security guards from Blackwater USA, which protects
American diplomats in Iraq.
Blackwater insists its guards acted legally and were returning fire from armed
insurgents.
Zebari said the Iraqi government has asked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for all
the facts, and reiterated Iraqi calls for the U.S. to release the Iranian
official. But Zebari said the Iranian remains in U.S. custody, and the border
remains shut.
"I think that was a direct response to the detention of an Iranian official by
the U.S. military in Sulaimani, and this was a collective punishment for the
region, for something that the Kurdish regional authorities were not
responsible," Zebari said.
"And I personally feel it's unfair and unjust, and it has affected the economic
life of the region. Prices have gone up," he said. "The region is dependent in
some way on fuel supplies from Iran, but the Iranians want to make a point
here."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied in an Associated Press interview on
Monday that Iran closed its border with Iraq over the arrest of the Iranian.
"On an annual basis, millions of Iranians visit Iraq and Iraq's holy sites for
pilgrimage purposes," he said.
"Recently, as a result of some clashes and the explosion of some bombs, a number
of Iranian civilian casualties arose. So the government has asked Iranian
citizens to avoid traveling for pilgrimage purposes until security is restored.
The commercial goods and freight transactions continue, and the travel across
the border for those purposes continue," Ahmadinejad said.
