Cruelbreed
07-10-2009, 03:32 PM
Americans Release Iranian Detainees to Iraq
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
BAGHDAD — The American military here unexpectedly released five Iranians on Thursday after holding them for more than two years on suspicion of orchestrating deadly attacks in Iraq. Iraqi officials promised to turn them over to the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad after Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki met with them in his office.
The American military and a senior aide to President Obama offered few details about the release or its timing. A military spokesman here, Capt. Brad Kimberly, said in a statement that the release had come “at the request of the government of Iraq” and complied with the security agreement between the United States and Iraq which requires the eventual transfer of all detainees in American custody.
Denis McDonough, a deputy national security adviser traveling with Mr. Obama in L’Aquila, Italy, for meetings of the Group of 8 industrialized nations, said the release was not a diplomatic gesture toward Iran, which the administration has sought to engage on some contentious issues, like the country’s nuclear program, so far unsuccessfully.
“It’s simply a decision based on that agreement,” Mr. McDonough said, referring to the security pact.
Mr. Maliki, who has both cultivated ties with Iran and criticized its interference in Iraqi affairs, clearly sought to exploit the situation diplomatically. In his meeting with the five Iranians, the prime minister asked “about their health,” said a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Hassan Qashqavi, according to the Iranian state-owned television network Al Alam. The men were also allowed to call their families.
It was not clear why Mr. Maliki’s government chose now to ask for the release of the men, who had been held for two and a half years; it could have done so any time since January under the security agreement terms. Even senior Iraqi officials seemed to know little about the release.
The Iranians, who the Americans say were senior operatives of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, have been a point of contention among the United States, Iran and Iraq ever since they were seized in a predawn raid on an Iranian office in the northern Kurdish city of Erbil in January 2007. Iran said the men were diplomats — three from a consulate in Erbil and two from the embassy in Baghdad — who should have been protected by diplomatic immunity.
American and some Iraqi officials have since argued that they did not have proper diplomatic credentials and that the building the American forces raided had not officially become a consulate, which would be sovereign Iranian territory. The American military has released other Iranians with diplomatic passports it has detained in some cases.
“Iran condemns this flagrant attack on its diplomats in Iraq in the first place,” Mr. Qashqavi, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in his remarks on Thursday. “This was against all international laws and conventions.”
It was not clear when the Iranians would return home. After spending the afternoon at Mr. Maliki’s office, they entered the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad on Thursday night.
The American military has not detailed its evidence against the men, so the extent of their involvement in violence in Iraq, if any, may never be known.
However, senior American military and diplomatic officials here continue to accuse Iran — or at least parts of its security forces and secret services — of supporting insurgent groups.
At a news conference on June 30, the top American commander here, Gen. Ray Odierno, criticized Iran in blunt terms.
“Iran is still supporting, funding, training surrogates who operate inside of Iraq — flat out,” he said. “They have not stopped. And I don’t think they will stop. I think they will continue to do that because they are also concerned, in my opinion, of where Iraq is headed. They want to try to gain influence here, and they will continue to do that. I think many of the attacks in Baghdad are from individuals that have been, in fact, funded or trained by the Iranians.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/world/middleeast/09release.html?ref=middleeast
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
BAGHDAD — The American military here unexpectedly released five Iranians on Thursday after holding them for more than two years on suspicion of orchestrating deadly attacks in Iraq. Iraqi officials promised to turn them over to the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad after Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki met with them in his office.
The American military and a senior aide to President Obama offered few details about the release or its timing. A military spokesman here, Capt. Brad Kimberly, said in a statement that the release had come “at the request of the government of Iraq” and complied with the security agreement between the United States and Iraq which requires the eventual transfer of all detainees in American custody.
Denis McDonough, a deputy national security adviser traveling with Mr. Obama in L’Aquila, Italy, for meetings of the Group of 8 industrialized nations, said the release was not a diplomatic gesture toward Iran, which the administration has sought to engage on some contentious issues, like the country’s nuclear program, so far unsuccessfully.
“It’s simply a decision based on that agreement,” Mr. McDonough said, referring to the security pact.
Mr. Maliki, who has both cultivated ties with Iran and criticized its interference in Iraqi affairs, clearly sought to exploit the situation diplomatically. In his meeting with the five Iranians, the prime minister asked “about their health,” said a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Hassan Qashqavi, according to the Iranian state-owned television network Al Alam. The men were also allowed to call their families.
It was not clear why Mr. Maliki’s government chose now to ask for the release of the men, who had been held for two and a half years; it could have done so any time since January under the security agreement terms. Even senior Iraqi officials seemed to know little about the release.
The Iranians, who the Americans say were senior operatives of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, have been a point of contention among the United States, Iran and Iraq ever since they were seized in a predawn raid on an Iranian office in the northern Kurdish city of Erbil in January 2007. Iran said the men were diplomats — three from a consulate in Erbil and two from the embassy in Baghdad — who should have been protected by diplomatic immunity.
American and some Iraqi officials have since argued that they did not have proper diplomatic credentials and that the building the American forces raided had not officially become a consulate, which would be sovereign Iranian territory. The American military has released other Iranians with diplomatic passports it has detained in some cases.
“Iran condemns this flagrant attack on its diplomats in Iraq in the first place,” Mr. Qashqavi, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in his remarks on Thursday. “This was against all international laws and conventions.”
It was not clear when the Iranians would return home. After spending the afternoon at Mr. Maliki’s office, they entered the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad on Thursday night.
The American military has not detailed its evidence against the men, so the extent of their involvement in violence in Iraq, if any, may never be known.
However, senior American military and diplomatic officials here continue to accuse Iran — or at least parts of its security forces and secret services — of supporting insurgent groups.
At a news conference on June 30, the top American commander here, Gen. Ray Odierno, criticized Iran in blunt terms.
“Iran is still supporting, funding, training surrogates who operate inside of Iraq — flat out,” he said. “They have not stopped. And I don’t think they will stop. I think they will continue to do that because they are also concerned, in my opinion, of where Iraq is headed. They want to try to gain influence here, and they will continue to do that. I think many of the attacks in Baghdad are from individuals that have been, in fact, funded or trained by the Iranians.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/world/middleeast/09release.html?ref=middleeast