More friction between the U.S., the Iraqi government…and Iran:
Iraqi and Iranian authorities slammed the United States on Monday 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.
They were invited by the Iraqi President. That will complicate the story…and the diplomacy:
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.
NSC spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the two diplomats were questioned, turned over to the Iraqi government and released.
At least two others, who are members of the Iranian military, remain in U.S. military custody while an investigation is conducted on whether they were involved in attacks on security forces in Iraq, Johndroe said.
The U.S. military has not responded to requests for comment.
But the State Department did comment in a statement that defended the action.
Well, almost:
The Bush administration said on Monday the arrest in Iraq of alleged Iranian provocateurs, including two diplomats, underscored U.S. concerns about “meddling” amid rising U.S.-Iranian strains.
U.S.-led forces detained the Iranians during operations “against those planning and plotting attacks against multinational forces, Iraqi forces and Iraqi citizens,” the State Department said.
“In the course of those operations, multinational forces recently picked up groups of individuals involved in these kinds of activities, including Iranians operating inside Iraq,” it said.
U.S. military and civilian officials in Baghdad and Washington did not respond to questions about any evidence the arrested Iranians were plotting attacks.
“We suspect this event validates our claim about Iranian meddling,” said Alex Conant, a White House spokesman, “but we want to finish our investigation of the detained Iranians before characterizing their activities.”
“We will be better able to explain what this means about the larger picture after we finish our investigation,” he added in an e-mailed reply to questions from Reuters.
This sounds like a hedge so big that someone needs to call in a landscaper.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.