Posted on 04/03/2007 6:56:06 AM PDT by KOZ.
The Iranian embassy in Baghdad said on Tuesday that its second secretary, Jalal Sharafi, who had been kidnapped in the Iraqi capital in February had been released.
The announcement confirmed a report on state television in Tehran, which said Sharafi would return to Iran later Tuesday.
"Yes, he was released yesterday," an official at the embassy told AFP but provided no further details.
Sharafi, 40, was abducted in Karrada, a predominantly Shiite southeastern district of Baghdad, on February 4 by gunmen dressed in Iraqi army uniforms outside a branch of the Iranian state-owned Bank Melli.
His abduction came amid increasing tension between Iran and the United States, which arrested five Iranians on January 11 in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil on suspicion of aiding and abetting the Iraqi insurgency.
But on Tuesday the US military expressed ignorance of Sharafi's release.
"We were not holding him, so we do not know about his release," said spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver.
Iran's foreign ministry had claimed that the United States supervises Iraq's defence ministry and was thus at least complicit in the abduction, which it blamed on a group linked to the Iraqi defence department.
Iranian news agency reports release of Iranian diplomat kidnapped in Iraq in February
Check out the first paragraph in particular.
Prisoner release in exchange for hostages... Never a good precedent.
seriously, iran goes to iraq, and we take them. then they take hostages on iraqi land, and we cave in. this is bad.
This guy was NOT one of the ‘diplomats’ from the queds force or whatever we took when we raided their little compound that Iran wanted back.
This is some other random guy that the Iraqi’s took and were holding.
Hmmm did they kidnap a former US FBI Agent??
New York Times
April 3, 2007
U.S. Asks Iran About Missing Man
WASHINGTON, April 2 (Reuters) The United States is asking Iran to provide information about an American citizen believed to have vanished several weeks ago in Iran while on private business, the State Department said Monday.
The State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said that the family and employer of the man had reported him missing, and that the department was sending an official inquiry to Iran on Monday via Swiss diplomats, who act as a go-between with Iran because the two countries do not have diplomatic relations.
The man is believed to have disappeared from Kish Island south of Iran. He was not identified. State Department officials said he retired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation some years ago and no longer worked for the government.
We are just SO bad at this PR thing.
Definitely wishful thinking, I suspect. The wussification of the West is nearly complete, and I doubt there will be any bombing—except from Iran.
probably just wishful thinking.
probably
Boundary experts say Britain, Iran can agree deal
by Luke Baker
LONDON (Reuters) - Shifting sands and a poorly defined maritime border could give Britain and Iran enough room to save face in their 12-day stand-off over a group of detained British sailors and marines, border experts say.
Because the maritime boundaries off the Shatt al-Arab waterway, drawn up in 1975 but not updated since, are open to a certain degree of interpretation, Britain and Iran could “agree to disagree” over exactly who crossed into whose territory.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL0373002420070403?src=040307_1126_DOUBLEFEATURE_top_news
How ‘diplomatic’ of Mr Pratt to write this up in a way that makes it sound as though this wasn’t an intentional planned act by the Iranian regime (complete with video cameras) and that it’s some disputed boundary problem.
Well the others may be next. This is from an article I read this morning:
“A senior Iraqi Foreign Ministry official said on Tuesday that the government was “intensively” seeking release of five Iranians detained by the U.S. military more than two months ago in northern Iraq.
“We are intensively seeking the release of the five Iranians,” the senior official said.
“This will be a factor that will help in the release of the British sailors and marines” held by Iran since March 25.”
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/04/03/iraq.iranians.ap/index.html
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