THE NEW VILLAGE RADIO  

Show Notes

• Archived Blog Post

  Date / Time: 7/9/2009 7:19 PM UTC

  U.S. frees 5 Iranian diplomats held since 2007?WHY TERRORISTS GETS FREE TODAY?
  

  The release was part of a previous agreement. But the detention had been a source of friction between Iran and the U.S., whose relations have been strained further by recent violent protests in Iran. Reporting from Baghdad - The U.S. military has freed five Iranian diplomats held since 2007, handing them over to the Iraqi government prior to their planned departure for Tehran, Iranian and Iraqi officials said today. "The American government has handed over the [Iranian] hostages and prisoners to the Iraqi government," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hasan Qashqavi told Iranian state TV. He said the prisoners had been received in person by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki at his office in Baghdad. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said he had met with the diplomats and that they are "happy and safe."
  
  An Iranian Embassy spokesman in Baghdad said the five would be handed over to the Baghdad embassy later in the day. The U.S. military refused to confirm or deny the report, saying it had a policy of not commenting on individual releases.
  
  According to Zebari, the five were freed under the terms of the security agreement between the U.S. and Iraq signed in December, under which the U.S. is to hand over all detainees to the Iraqi government by the end of the year.
  
  
  "There wasn't any deal," he said. "This has been there for some time that this would happen. It was part of the agreement for the Americans, part of withdrawing and handing over security responsibilities."
  
  The diplomats had been detained in January 2007 in the northern city of Irbil in the autonomous region of Kurdistan at the height of what amounted to a cold war raging between the U.S. and Iran over influence in Iraq. The U.S. military subsequently said they were not diplomats but members of the elite Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard and accused them of arming, funding and training Shiite militias in Iraq.
  
  Relations between the U.S. and Iran improved somewhat following a series of talks between the two sides in Baghdad, and two other diplomats detained in Baghdad were freed. But the continued detention of the five remained a source of friction between Tehran and Washington.
  
  President Obama has promised to improve relations further with Tehran by pursuing dialogue, but the prospects of a thaw have been diminished by Iran's harsh crackdown against demonstrators protesting the disputed results of last month's election
  • Tags:
  • OBAMA BETRAYED IRANI
  • Permalink