Iraqi FM Doubtful about Release of Iranian Diplomats

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said he can’t promise to set free the five Iranian diplomats kidnapped during a raid by the US troops on Iran’s consulate general in the Iraqi northern city of Erbil a few months ago. In an interview with the Saudi paper ‘Al-Madineh’, Zebari reminded that the Iranian diplomats have been arrested by the US troops, and stressed, “We are just facilitating relations between the two sides and we can’t do anything more.”

“I have raised an official and direct demand with the US ambassador to Baghdad to allow a meeting between the Iranian embassy officials and the five diplomats under US detention,” he continued.

Noting the upcoming meeting of the foreign ministers of Iraq’s neighboring states in the Egyptian capital city of Cairo and pointing to a possible meeting between Iranian foreign minister and US secretary of state on the sidelines of the said summit, the top diplomat said, “It is expected that bilateral talks between some of the participating sides in the Cairo meeting would break the icy condition in their tense relations and leave a positive effect on Iraq’s conditions.”