refid:5759536 ilişkili resim dosyası
Just as US President George W. Bush was explaining his new strategies on Iraq to the American nation yesterday evening, a raid was being carried out on the official Iranian Consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil at 3 in the morning local time. During the raid, 5 Iranians were arrested, and their computers and documents were consficated.
US authorities have not yet commented on the early morning raid on the Erbil Iranian Consulate, though it was noted that in his speech, President Bush had underlined that "Military precautions will be taken in Iraq against enemy activities by Iranian and Syrian forces based in Iraq against the coalition troops." Some sources speculated that the raid on the Iranian Consulate in Erbil signalled a start to the implementation of this new tactic.
The first news of the Erbil raid came this morning on Iraqi state and Kurdish television channels. During the last week of December 2006, US troops arrested 4 Iranians who had come to Iraq as the guests of Talabani. Two of the 4 were military authorities, while the other 2 were diplomats. Following negative reaction from both Iran and Talabani himself, the US troops let the group of 4 Iranians go free.
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Erbil province in northern Iraq
The U.S. armed forces detained five Iranians working at a "liaison office" located in Erbil, Iraq before dawn on Friday. Sources said that the U.S. forces first landed their helicopters around the building, then broke through the office's gate, disarmed the guards, confiscated some documents and certain objects, arrested five suspected terrorists, and then left for an undisclosed location.

However, there was no raid on the Iranian Consulate General as earlier reported. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told Agence France-Presse that the building raided was "not a consulate or a government building", which appears to be confirmed by the Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, who said the Iranians were working at an office that had government approval and was in the process of being approved as a consulate, but was not a Consulate nor the Iranian Consulate General.  The US is strategically insisting that they raided a "liaison office" instead of a Consulate to avoid being found in violation of Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mikhail Kamynin said that the raid was absolutely unacceptable and was a violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The Kurdistan Regional Government also expressed their shock and disapproval of the raid.

On Thursday's hearing on Iraq, Senator Joseph Biden (D-Delware), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the Bush Administration did not have the authority to send U.S. troops on cross-border raids. Biden said, "I believe the present authorization granted the president to use force in Iraq does not cover that, and he does need congressional authority to do that. I just want to set that marker."  After the meeting, Biden sent a follow-up letter to the White House asking for an explanation from the Bush Administration on the matter.

On Thursday morning, Iran's foreign ministry official sent a letter to Iraq's foreign ministry asking Iraq to stop the Bush Administration from interfering with Iraq-Iran relations, and has protested the raid on its liaison office. The official said, "We expect the Iraqi government to take immediate measures to set the aforesaid individuals free and to condemn the U.S. troopers for the measure. Following up on the case and releasing the arrestees is a responsibility of primarily the Iraqi government and then the local government and officials of the Iraqi Kurdistan."