Kurdish Leaders 'Condemn' U.S. Raid on Iranian Consulate

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

Golly, who'da thought the Kurds didn't want the carnage spread to their province?

http://www.watchingamerica.com/kurdishmedia000006.shtml


Statement by the President of the Kurdistan Region and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) regarding the American raid, at dawn today, on the consulate of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Arbil

The Presidency and the Kurdistan Regional Government express their dismay and condemnation of the American action against the official consulate of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Arbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The consulate was opened after an agreement between the governments of Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran, and enjoys immunity and protection under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

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Unlike other parts of Iraq, the Kurdistan Region enjoys safety, security, stability and the rule of law. The Ameircan action does not conform to the policy of attempting to spread security and stability throughout Iraq. No military action should be taken in the Kurdistan Region without consultations with security authorities here.

The people of the Kurdistan Region protest and reject this action, which violates our internal sovereignty. We don't accept that disputes with neighboring countries should be brought onto our soil. We call for the immediate release of those that the Americans arrested.

[rodeodance]

1. France Germany --all Nations should DO this

[fooj]

2. They WERE our allies.

[Solo_in_MD]

3. Does anyone have a link or know the rationale that the US is using to say it was not a Consulate?

[leveymg]

4. Pressure increasing on Kurds & Shia to sign hydrocarbon law.

There is another reason for Bush to stall, escalate and randomize the situation in Iraq. Oil.

The hydrocarbon law hasn't been signed, and the Surge gives Bush a last chance to coerce the Shi'a and the Kurds to sign away their ownership rights to the multinationals.

Without the threat of an attack on Iran, and the heightened tensions between the US and the Kurds in the North, likely the civil war would reach the point where any agreement between the three groups would become simply impossible.

This is stall to gain time and try to reorder things enough so that Exxon-Mobil gets its 75-year concessions.

***

It's been reported there was an armed confrontation between US and Kurdish troops at the airport when the Americans tried to fly out the Iranians who has been seized at the diplmatic post. Earlier this morning, I saw a link to an article that reported an armed confrontation with the Kurds - at first I couldn't believe it. Just went back to find it, and the post has been pulled.

Now, if this is true, the whole thing is beginning to make better sense.

Found a confirmation story by AP, which spun it this way: "All a big misunderstanding among friends". Double-sorry about the FOX link. Anyone see this reported anywhere else?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,243271,00.html

Five Iranians Seized by U.S. Troops in Iraq Remain in Custody
Friday, January 12, 2007

E-MAIL STORY PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION
BAGHDAD, Iraq — The Iraqi foreign minister said Friday that the five Iranians detained by U.S.-led forces in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq were working in a liaison office that had government approval and was in the process of being approved as a consulate.

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, also said U.S. forces tried to seize more people at the airport in Irbil, 220 miles north of Baghdad, prompting a confrontation with Kurdish troops guarding the facility that was resolved without casualties.

In Washington, a Pentagon official said that after troops detained the people in the building, they got intelligence indicating that another person might have escaped out the back door and fled to the airport.

So an American team was sent to the airport, where they "surprised" Kurdish forces, who apparently had not been informed they were coming and wondered who they were and what they were doing there, said the Defense Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak about the incident on the record.

"No shots were fired, no one was injured, it was just a tense situation," said the official, who said it was possible a Kurdish commander had been informed but word had not reached troops at the airport.