VARIOUS: Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari says the five Iranians held by U.S. forces in Iraq are not diolpmats / Iran demands their release

Five Iranians were arrested on Thursday (January 11) in a U.S. dawn raid on an Iranian government office in the Kurdish city of Arbil. The operation was denounced by the regional Kurdish government as a violation of its sovereignty. "An operation like such as this is unacceptable....the offices of the regional government of Kurdistan should have been informed," Kurdistan National Assembly member Khalil Ibrahim said. In Tehran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini demanded their immediate release, saying the five were diplomats involved in "consulate affairs". "The American forces should release the five Iranians as soon as possible," Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a weekly news conference, adding the five were "involved in consulate affairs". "Their activities were of an official nature, within the framework of law," Hosseini said when asked whether the five Iranians were members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards. But Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said the Iranians were not accredited as diplomats but were working with Iraqi approval. Calling for their release, he said the incident underlined the "delicate balance" Baghdad is trying to strike. "This is a liaison office, it is not a diplomatic mission or a consulate and they are not the carrier of any diplomatic passports or certificates," Zebari said. The U.S. military said the five detainees were connected to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard-Qods Force (IRGC-QF). The organisation was "known for providing funds, weapons, improvised explosive device technology and training to extremist groups attempting to destabilise the government of Iraq and attack Coalition forces," it said in a statement. "I do not know if they are members of the Qods (Iranian Revolutionary Guard-Qods Force) or whatever but we deal with them as Iranian officials," Zebari added. As the row over the five brewed, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday in the first visit in more than two decades by an Iraqi head of state to Syria, another foe of Bush.

ITN Source | January 15, 2007

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