Eurasia Press & News
TEHRAN (FNA)- The top UN official in Iraq has condemned last week’s gun attack against Iranian diplomats based in Baghdad that has left four people wounded, including two diplomats.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Staffan de Mistura, described the attack on an embassy convoy of vehicles in the north of the city as outrageous.
“Attacking foreign diplomats in Iraq aims to discourage normal diplomatic relations between Iraq and the international community, but will not succeed as we have witnessed increased diplomatic activities here in Iraq in the last few months,” he said.
De Mistura added that he had conveyed these sentiments to Iran’s Ambassador to Iraq, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, during a meeting at UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) offices in Baghdad.
According to an Iraqi Interior Ministry source the Iranian embassy staff were wounded when their vehicles came under fire on Thursday night in northern Baghdad.
“Unknown gunmen opened small-arms fire on two sport utility vehicles (SUV) of the Iranian embassy at about 9:30 p.m.(1900 GMT)near Buratha Shiite mosque in Ateifiyah neighborhood,” the source said.
The shooting occurred on Thursday as the Iranians’ convoy approached a bridge leading to a revered Shiite shrine in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Kazimiyah.
Iranian Embassy spokesman Manouchehr Taslimi said he did not know who the gunmen were. Taslimi said two Iranian diplomats, another Iranian and an Iraqi administrative employee were wounded and were now in stable condition.
