Iran says US responsible for diplomat's life
Iran today condemned the abduction of its diplomat in Baghdad, adding that it holds the United States responsible for his life.
The United States military in Iraq said it was not involved.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said that gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms had seized Jalal Sharafi, the second secretary at the Iranian Embassy, as he drove through central Baghdad on Sunday.
Hosseini said the gunmen “operate under the supervision of the American forces in Iraq,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran strongly condemns this aggressive act which is in violation of international law ,” IRNA quoted Hosseini as saying.
“Iran holds American forces in Iraq responsible for the safety and life of the Iranian diplomat,” Hosseini added.
A US military spokesman in Baghdad, Lt Col Christopher Garver, said that no US troops, or Iraqi troops that report to them, were involved in the incident.
“We’ve checked with our units and it was not an MNF-I (Multi-National Forces - Iraq) unit that participated in that event,” Garver said, referring to a special Iraqi force that is directed by the US military.
Garver added he could not confirm the diplomat was seized.
The Iranian ambassador to Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, said the kidnapping appeared to be “within the framework of US president’s order to step up encounters with Iranians” in Iraq, state television reported.
Qomi said the kidnappers used American vehicles.
He also told state TV that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had appointed a team to investigate the fate of the Iranian diplomat.
Last month, US President George Bush authorised US forces in Iraq to kill or capture Iranian agents suspected of being involved in the violence, saying there was mounting evidence of Iran’s supporting terrorists in Iraq and providing weapons used to target US forces. Tehran denied the charges.
An official at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad said the diplomat was going to a new Iranian bank in the Karradah district when he was seized by men wearing Iraqi army uniforms.
An Iraqi government official said Iraqi soldiers in two vehicles intercepted a car carrying the diplomat at 6pm on Sunday in the predominantly Shiite area.
The soldiers put him in one of their vehicles and sped away, said the Iraqi official.
Iraqi police officers, suspecting that a kidnapping was taking place, opened fire on the second vehicle and detained the occupants, according to the official.
He added that the men who had been detained were released yesterday.
The US Embassy spokesman said he could not confirm the reports.
“There appear to be conflicting accounts of this alleged incident and we are in the process of trying to determine the facts,” the spokesman, Lou Fintor, said.
The kidnapping occurred as tensions between Iran and the United States were running high owing to a US military buildup in the Gulf region, Bush’s authorising US forces to kill or capture Iranian suspects in Iraq, and the stand-off over Iran’s nuclear programme.
It also came nearly a month after US troops detained five Iranians in northern Iraq and accused them of having links to an Iranian military faction blamed for funding and arming Iraqi militants.
Later this month, the UN Security Council is due to consider additional measures against Iran over its refusal to stop enriching uranium, a process that produces fuel for nuclear reactors or weapons.
The United States is pushing for the council to expand the sanctions imposed on Iran in December, accusing the country of secretly trying to build a nuclear bomb.
Iran denies the charge, saying its program is strictly limited to generating electricity.
