Iran to Complain to UN over Arrests in Iraq

A023289026.jpgTEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran said it would soon lodge a complaint with the UN Security Council about the kidnapping of five Iranians diplomats by the US troops during a raid on Iranian consulate general in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil.

Washington regularly accuses Iran of encouraging violence in Iraq, a charge Tehran dismisses, saying the US occupiers are destabilizing the country. Iran has demanded the immediate release of the Iranians.

“Soon we will complain to the Security Council and the United Nations for this adventurism by America,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on state television.

He did not say when Iran would take such a step.

“Instead of securing Iraq, America is following heathen aims,” he said, adding that the United States wanted “to make regional countries face off with Iran.”

According to the report, Tehran accuses Washington of trying to line up nearby Arab countries, who are dominated by Sunni Muslims, against Iran, which like Iraq has a Shiite Muslim majority.

The arrest on January 11, the second such detention in a month, have heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran, already at loggerheads over Iran’s nuclear program which US officials say is aimed at making atomic bombs.

Iran insists its aims are civilian and part of plans to generate electricity.

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