| Topic: |
Science > Prophecies-Of-Nostradamus |
| User: |
"=?utf-8?B?V2FsbHkgTG9ybmXihKI=?=" |
| Date: |
12 Jun 2007 10:43:28 PM |
| Object: |
UNCLE WALLY 'S COUNTDOWN TO NUCLEAR WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST -- Iran: U.S. Will Regret Detention of 5 Iranians in Iraq |
HOOROO
UNCLE WALLY
---
http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,280933,00.html
Iran: U.S. Will Regret Detention of 5 Iranians in Iraq
Tuesday , June 12, 2007
TEHRAN, Iran =E2=80=94
Iran will make the United States "regret" its detention of five
Iranian officials in Iraq, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said
Tuesday.
Mottaki was referring to five Iranian officials detained in the
northern Iraqi city of Irbil by U.S. troops in January, who still
remain in U.S. custody. The U.S. military has said they are suspected
of links to a network supplying arms to Iraqi insurgents =E2=80=94 an
accusation that Iran has denied.
"We will make the Americans regret their ugly and illegal act,"
Mottaki was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying. He
didn't elaborate on how Iran will make Washington regret the action.
"We warn American officials to free our diplomats as soon as
possible," Mottaki said.
=E2=80=A2 Monitor the nuclear showdown in FOXNews.com's Iran Center.
However, Mottaki added that Iran was still willing to continue direct
talks with the United States on Iraq, which began first last month in
Baghdad and which broke a 27-year diplomatic freeze between the two
foes.
The ambassador-level talks were the first formal, scheduled meeting
between Iranian and American government officials since the United
States broke diplomatic relations with Tehran after the 1979 Islamic
Revolution and the seizure of the U.S. Embassy.
A second round of talks was expected later this month, but recent
bitter U.S.-Iran exchanges have thrown that new round into doubt.
Mottaki said Iran "will take positively the request of the Iraqi
government on the continuation of talks," providing the Americans
"change their policies toward solving the problem in Iraq =E2=80=94 of which
they are a part themselves."
Iraq's ambassador to Baghdad, Hasan Kazemi Qomi, who represented Iran
at the May talks, said the issue of the "freedom of the diplomats"
would be on the agenda of future Iran-U.S. talks.
"One of the subjects for possible dialogue between Iran and the United
States will be the release of five Iranian diplomats," IRNA quoted
Qomi as saying.
Iran has claimed the five detained Iranians were diplomats and that
the building the U.S. troops occupied during the raid that led to the
arrests was an Iranian liaison office.
Visit FOXNews.com's Iran Center for complete coverage.
Tehran also said the five were the guests of the Iraqi government and
has demanded their release. Iraqi government officials have also
called for their release, along with compensation for damages.
Unconfirmed reports say the five included the operations chief and
other members of Iran's elite Quds Force, which is accused of arming
and training Iraqi militants.
The five have not been charged with a crime. The United States has
allowed the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit the men
but has so far not allowed Iranian representatives to visit them.
Mottaki said Iran will send a formal letter to the U.N. Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon within the next few days to protest inaction by
the Security Council and delays in taking up the issue of the five
Iranians' detention.
Iran, meanwhile, has detained four Iranian-Americans while visiting
family members in Iran or working here, in a case that has further
riled relations between the two countries.
A judicial spokesman, Ali Reza Jamshidi, said Tuesday that a judge
will decide within the next few days whether to indict the four with
endangering national security or free them.
The families, colleagues and employers of the detained =E2=80=94 as well as
U=2ES. officials =E2=80=94 have denied the allegations.
The four include Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East program
at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, who was
jailed in Iran in early May. The others are Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban
planning consultant with George Soros' Open Society Institute; Parnaz
Azima, a journalist who works for the U.S.-funded Radio Farda; and Ali
Shakeri, a founding board member of the University of California,
Irvine, Center for Citizen Peacebuilding.
Last month, Tehran said it uncovered spy rings organized by the United
States and its Western allies on Iranian soil.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
.
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
