Eurasia Press & News
TEHRAN (Fars News Agency) Few countries may tolerate violation of international agreements by the other side, Iranian parliament speaker said in the wake of recent comments by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani that he does not recognize the 1975 Algiers border accord between Tehran and Baghdad.Speaking to reporters during a press conference here on Wednesday, Gholam Ali Haddad Adel voiced surprise over the statement of such views, and expressed the hope that the Iraqi president had been misquoted.
“We believe that the Algiers accord is a legal and valid treaty. If those who have endorsed it are not present today, the accord still exists; it has been signed by two legal parties,” Haddad Adel said.
He further cautioned against violation of the border accord by the Iraqi side, warning, “Violating international accords is followed by extensive negative consequences which may not be tolerated but by few states. We hope that Iran-Iraq relations are not troubled.”
Meantime, the parliament speaker reiterated authenticity, creditability and validity of the Algiers border accord between Iran and Iraq.
The Algiers Accord, which Iran and Iraq signed in 1975, set the border between the two countries in the middle of the waterway that empties into the Persian Gulf, known as Arvand Rood in Iran and Shatt-al-Arab in Iraq.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini also earlier denounced statement of such views by Iraqi officials, saying, “Any comment about cancellation of the 1975 Algiers accord is without legal foundation … The accord is the cornerstone for friendship and strengthening of relations between the two countries. Prospects for expansion of mutual ties can be perceived only within this accord.”
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein tore up a copy of the 1975 treaty in a televised broadcast five days before his troops invaded Iran in September 1980, starting a bloody eight-year war that ended in a UN-brokered cease-fire in 1988. The two countries are yet to sign a formal peace treaty.
Talabani, who has generally enjoyed cordial relations with Tehran, has been quoted as saying that he doesn’t recognize the accord, according to the Arabic satellite news channel Al-Jazeera’s Web site.
When asked about Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s efforts to revive the Algiers Accord with Iran, Talabani said, “no way!, the website reported, saying Talabani said during a visit to Tehran that he refused to recognize the agreement.
“This agreement was between Saddam and the Shah of Iran not between Iran and Iraq. We want good and excellent relations with our Islamic republic neighbor of Iran and we have talked with our brothers Iranians before about it,” the website reported.
