U.S. FREES FIVE IRANIANS HELD IN IRAQ
By Daniel Dombey (Washington) and Anthony Shadid (Baghdad)

Financial Times (London)
July 9, 2009 (1651 BST, updated 2340 BST [1540 PDT]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/abd654c6-6c9d-11de-a6e6-00144feabdc0.html

The U.S. on Thursday released five Iranian officials from its custody in
Iraq, as Washington moved ahead with its drive to improve relations with
the Islamic Republic even as protesters returned to the streets of Tehran.

Fresh clashes broke out when thousands of opposition supporters gathered
to protest against last monthÂ’s disputed election result. Security forces
used tear gas to break up the rallies, which also marked the anniversary
of student protests 10 years ago. Witnesses reported that several people
had been arrested.

It appeared to be the most significant unrest in Iran since security
forces stopped much bigger protests in the immediate aftermath of the
election amid opposition claims of fraud.

The crackdown in Iran has increased pressure on Barack ObamaÂ’s policy of
engagement with Iran, with calls on the president from Republicans to
avoid legitimizing the Iranian regime.

Just hours before the ­protests, the U.S. military handed the five
Iranians over to the Iraqi authorities. They had been detained in Iraq
since 2007 on ­suspicion of aiding Shia insurgents.

Hoshyer Zebari, Iraq’s ­foreign minister, who met the Iranians after their
release, said he expected them to be turned over to the Iranian embassy
“after legal procedures.”

Tehran has repeatedly demanded the officialsÂ’ release, saying their
detention violated diplomatic protocols.

Although the U.S. has sometimes said that Iranian-related attacks have
since diminished, General Raymond Odierno, the commander of U.S. forces in
Iraq, told CNN last month that Iran continued to “interfere” in the
country by training insurgents and paying surrogates.

The U.S. State Department on Thursday said the decision to hand over the
five Iranians was solely because Baghdad had asked for all third-country
detainees to be put into its custody, in line with an agreement to scale
down the U.S. militaryÂ’s role in Iraq.

At the Group of Eight meeting in L’Aquila, Italy, Denis ­MacDonough, a
senior adviser to Mr. Obama, denied the move was a diplomatic gesture.
But the summit highlighted the limited time the U.S. president has for
engagement in the dispute over TehranÂ’s nuclear ambitions.

Amid pressure from Britain and France for a tough stance, G8 leaders said
they would “take stock” in September of the success of efforts to find a
diplomatic solution.

--Additional reporting by Najmeh Bozorgmehr and Reuters in Tehran.



U.S. TURNS OVER TO IRAQ IRANIANS SUSPECTED OF AIDING INSURGENTS
By Warren P. Strobel and Mike Tharp

McClatchy Newspapers
July 9, 2009 (1655 PDT -- Jul. 10, 0425 Tehran time)

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/1135032.html

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military on Thursday reluctantly turned over to
Iraq five Iranians it had accused of fomenting violence in Iraq. The
Iraqi government promptly invited them to meet Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki and then released them to Iranian custody.

U.S. spokesmen in Baghdad and Washington said the United States had no
choice but to free the five men under the terms of last year's Status of
Forces Agreement, which requires the United States eventually to transfer
the more than 10,000 Iraqi and third-country detainees it now holds.

The United States claims that the five, detained in January 2007 in the
northern city of Irbil, were in the Quds Force, the covert arms of Iran's
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and were arming and training anti-U.S.
insurgents. It has not provided detailed evidence to back up that charge,
asserting it would compromise secret intelligence methods, and never
pressed formal charges.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the U.S. military turned over
the five Iranians after Iraq issued arrest warrants for all third-country
nationals in U.S. custody. Those are said to number about 150, and
include Syrian, Jordanian and Libyan individuals who came to Iraq to fight
American forces.

Kelly acknowledged misgivings about the release, and its impact on U.S.
military personnel in Iraq. "That is a big concern of ours, is the safety
of American forces. And we ... have of course made our concerns known to
the Iraqi government," he said.

Kelly and U.S. officials said the release did not involve a quid pro quo
with Iran and was not a part of the Obama administration's attempts to
engage that country's leaders.

Rather than re-arrest the five, the Iraqi government granted them a
meeting with al-Maliki and then reportedly turned them over to Iran's
embassy in Baghdad.

The Iraqi prime minister's office referred questions to the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, where officials couldn't be reached for comment. Iraqi
security guards turned away a McClatchy Newspapers reporter and Iraqi
journalists at the Iranian embassy in Baghdad.

It could not be learned if the United States formally protested Iraq's
actions.

Thursday's developments were further evidence of the shifting relationship
between Iraq and the United States, which just over a week ago withdrew
its remaining combat troops from Iraqi cities. In carrying out the forces
agreement -- and in negotiating it last year -- al-Maliki has acted with
increasing assertiveness, and sometimes in ways not in line with U.S.
interests.

The release of the five Iranians also ends a 2 1/2-year saga that began
when they were seized by U.S. Special Forces in Irbil, in Iraq's Kurdish
region.

Iran said the five were diplomats and that the building where they were
detained was an Iranian consulate. Iraq protested the detentions at the
time, telling U.S. officials the Iranians were in the country legally. In
March 2007, in what may have been a related incident, Iran seized 15 Royal
Navy sailors it said were in Iran's territorial waters. They were
released 12 days later.

U.S. officials said there was no documentation confirming the Irbil site
was a diplomatic facility, and said intelligence data -- including
material seized after the building was searched -- showed the five to be
members of the Quds force.

The U.S. officials, who requested anonymity to speak more frankly, made
clear they were unenthusiastic about freeing the Iranians. One called it
"a situation where we're going to grit our teeth and do it."

(Tharp reports for the Merced (Calif.) Sun-Star.)


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