Promoted by Steven D, with some minor changes. Nothing in Oui’s diary has been omitted, but I’ve moved most of it below the fold to conserve space on the front page. It is an incredibly serious and breaking news story, however, and deserves front page attention.
(cont.)
ARBIL, Northern Iraq (AFP) 40 min. ago – US troops have raided Iran’s consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil and arrested five employees, an Iranian diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
“We don’t know the reason for this,” the diplomat said of the raid, which came amid mounting US accusations that Iranian agents are fomenting unrest in Iraq and ordering attacks on American forces. “The Americans arrested five employees and took all the computers and documentation,” the Iranian official said.
The Iranian consulate building in Arbil, which is the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, was sealed off by Kurdish security forces, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene.
Iraq and Iran reached agreement last year to set up an Iranian consulate at Arbil to facilitate cross-border visits by their citizens.
According to Iranian state television, permission had been granted by the Kurdish authorities for the consulate to commence operations and the office was currently “in the final stages of receiving permission from the Iraqi government”.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) Dec. 25, 2006 – Iraqi and Iranian authorities slammed the United States for having arrested several Iranians who were visiting Iraq.
A U.S. official said the Iranians were suspected of involvement in attacks against Iraqi security forces.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Seyyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini warned that “this action is not justifiable by any international rules or regulations and will have unpleasant consequences,” Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
A spokesman for Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Talabani had invited the Iranians to the country, and the president was “unhappy” about the arrests.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani had inviited Iranians to visit his country while in Tehran.
The U.S. National Security Council confirmed that the American military arrested at least four Iranians in raids during the past week in Iraq, including two diplomats.
Another US military spokesman, Major General William Caldwell, said on December 27 that US forces had detained two Iranian nationals among eight people rounded up on suspicion of weapons smuggling in a raid in Baghdad.
The two Iranians were later handed over to Iranian officials in Baghdad.
TEHRAN, Iran (Fars News Agency) Jan. 7, 2007 – The United Arab Emirates’ Foreign Minister Abdallah bin Zayid al-Nuhayyan termed rumors and reports about Arab states’ assistance with a possible attack on Iran as unwise and insane.
Speaking to reporters during a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki here, al-Nuhayyan lauded the two countries’ extensive relations, and said that the United Arab Emirates and Iran are due to expand mutual cooperation through forming joint committees and encouraging more investments in the two countries.
The top diplomat further viewed Iran’s relations with the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) as historical, and underlined that regional nations are profoundly interested in developing ties with Iran due to the strong bonds existing between the Iranian and regional nations.
He also said that during his meeting with Mottaki, the two sides have discussed cooperation in areas of energy and trade, and mentioned that both countries are zealously pursuing development of mutual relations.
putting some muscle to his speech.
However, this raid did not go over well. Heard on BBC radio World Service News update 10:00AM, – 5:00AM East coast, – “at one checkpoint, Kurdish soldiers and American soldiers cocked their guns at each other until U.S. helicopters came in to take away the Americans.“
winning hearts and minds ain’t in the mix.
btw, I was not so asleep at 5:00AM – just as a follow-up, Josh Marshall TPM cites a NYT article that confirms the altercation.
We’re going to interrupt flow of materials and advanced weaponry to our enemies in the South to save our ally for democracy’s sake …
President Lyndon Baines Johnson from Texas (1965)
Vietnam, U.S. air power and General Giap
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Oh my God. I thought I was dreaming because I had the TV on French 24 but had dozed off.
Escalation, indeed.
in Bush’s speech last night and were extremely concerned. IRAN was being introduced into the fray by King George last night. Somebody please, stop this monster before it is too late. Start stock piling supplies because Iran won’t tolerate our interference. We’re screwed!
That’s exactly what we thought. Of course, that’s what I thought when he replaced his generals with an admiral. I know it’s been said here, but it bears repeating: why send a Navy guy to lead a war in an almost landlocked country…unless the objective is to invade another one?
I’ve been suspiscious ever since they started playing with warships in the Persian Gulf last fall.
Yup. And to take another step in that direction simply terrfies me.
Suspected? In Bush’s world one need only be suspected of being an obstruction to world domination to be subject to arrest. We don’t need no stinkin’ thorough investigation and diplomacy, we’ll just march into a foreign consulate and do as we please.
Frankly, most diplomats from all countries include a number of spies. Everyone knows that. So, any diplomatic or consular employee may be “suspected” of something nefarious. However, I have strong doubts that this raid ocurred because of any suspicions of improper activity. Even if the captured Irenians were legitimately suspected of espionage, it wads the province of the “sovereign” government Iraq to issue the order to undertake this raid and arrest. That US forces did it without the blessing of the Iraqi government says volumes about it’s true purpose. Bush is clearly seeking to create a causus belli for an attack on Iran.
Isn’t a consulate technically and legally the property of the soverign government, i.e. Iran? and what about diplomatic protections and convention?
I know they mean nothing to King George II, but this is really really really FUBAR.
I thought Iraq was a sovereign nation,a fledgling yet stellar democratic example to the region! Yet we feel we have the right to invade one of the embassies on its soil.
The U.S. thruggery has got to stop.
Bush is trying to provoke war with Iran. It’s unbelievably dangerous and stupid. He said in his speech last night that he’ll use any excuse to preemptively attack. By his arrest of Iranian diplomats, legally in Iraq, he’s created open season on American diplomats.
As bad as things are in Iraq, things could get a whole lot worse if Bush succeeds in provoking war with Iran.
I agree.
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Arbil, Iraq (Al-Jazeera) – US forces, backed by helicopters, have raided the Iranian consulate’s offices in Arbil, the Kurdish capital in northern Iraq. The U.S. forces disarmed the Kurdish guards protecting the Iranian consular offices.
A Kurdish TV station said Kurdish security forces took over the building after the Americans left the area.
Arbil, capital city of Kurdish IraqThe offices of the Kurdish prime minister and Kurdish president expressed their “disturbance and condemnation” at the pre-dawn operation and urged the US military to release employees arrested during the raid.
International law violated
Mohammad Ali Hosseini, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman condemned the raid and said it was a violation of international law.
Arabs see little hope for Bush’s Iraq plan
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
BAGHDAD (BBC News) Jan. 17 – One of Iraq’s most powerful Shia politicians has condemned the arrest of Iranians by US forces in Iraq as an attack on the country’s sovereignty.
The comments by Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, made in a BBC interview, are seen as the strongest expression yet of Iraq’s concern about the US approach to Iran. The remarks are interesting as Mr Hakim is seen as close to President Bush, says the BBC’s Andrew North in Baghdad.
President George W. Bush welcomes Sayyed Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim, Leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, to the White House Monday, Dec. 4, 2006.Late last year, US troops descended on Mr Hakim’s residential compound in Baghdad and detained two Iranian officials. They were later released.
But last week, five more were detained at the Iranian liaison office in Irbil. They are still being held. US officials say they are linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard which they allege trains and arms Iraqi insurgents.
Iran, which has demanded their immediate release, says they are diplomats engaged in legitimate work.
“Regardless of the Iranian position we consider these actions as incorrect,” Mr Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, told the BBC.
“They represent a kind of attack on Iraq’s sovereignty and we hope such things are not repeated.”
Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said that Iraq needed a constructive relationship with Iran. “We can’t change the geographical reality that Iran is our neighbour. This is a delicate balance and we are treading a very thin line.” We fully respect the views, policies and strategy of the United States, which is the strongest ally to Iraq, but the Iraqi government has national interests of its own,” Mr Zebari said.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."