Eurasia Press & News
TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian parliament speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel here on Sunday condemned the Thursday raid by the US military troops on Iran’s consulate general in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil.
Addressing an open session of the parliament, Haddad Adel also expressed his surprise and regret over the raid and the kidnapping of the five mission staffers.
“We are surprised at the measure and strongly condemn it, specially because the US Secretary of State has directly announced that the raid on the Iranian consulate general office has been on the agenda of the US president in person,” he continued.
“These measures and statements indicate the anger and paralyzed status of the Americans in Iraq,” the chief legislative official mentioned.
“A government which invaded Iraq on the pretext of finding Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) and to relieve the world from the danger of Saddam Hussein has now come to a point where it raids a consulate office which had diplomatic protection,” he added.
Haddad Adel said that the US measures in Iraq are not viewed honorable for the American nation, and continued, “Rather, their measures have discredited the American people. The same way that Mr. Bush is regretting his previous decisions about Iraq, he will have to admit the incorrectness of his military troops’ invasion of the Iranian consulate general office in future.”
According to local Kurdish officials, at around 3 a.m. US troops disarmed the guards outside the consulate, broke into the building and confiscated computers and documents while military helicopters were circling overhead. Despite Americans’ allegations, the liaison office had diplomatic protection and functioned as a consulate general issuing travel documents and carrying out other consular tasks. An Iranian flag flying over the building was hauled down during the raid.
