US Releases 5 Iranian Officials Held in Iraq
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Related subjects: Anjika Sridhar, Asia / Pacific, Diplomacy & Politics, Global, Iran, Iraq, Middle East, Security & Surveillance, U.S. news Comments Off
As part of its deal to transition major security operations in Iraq to the Iraqi military and civil authorities, the United States has released 5 Iranian officials it had been holding on charges of engaging in covert operations inside Iraq. The officials —whom Iran calls diplomats— were released into the custody of Iraqi authorities, were met personally by prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, and were officially freed by Iraq.
The move comes amid mounting concerns over a “covert war” between the US and Iran on what CNN calls “battlefield Iraq”. With both the US accusing Iran of covert operations in Iraq and Iran accusing the US of covert operations against Iranian interests in both Iraq and Iran, concerns over the regional meaning of the Iraq conflict are shifting to the political climate in Tehran and the risk of nuclear proliferation.
Iranian authorities have accused the US of fomenting resistance to government authority in Iran, while the US accuses Iran of interfering in Iraq, seeking to destabilize the conflict-ridden multi-ethnic nation, in order to expand its sphere of influence. With no evidence against the 5 detained Iranians ever made public, the prolonged detentions were a source of severe diplomatic tension between the two rivals for regional influence.
Pres. Obama had promised a new era of engagement with Tehran, and some see the linking of the diplomats’ release to the handover of security powers to Iraqi authorities as a way of keeping the detention itself and/or release from dominating discussions about difference in US and Iranian policy. Iran had released Iranian-American reporter Roxana Saberi, after a sustained global campaign of pressure for her release, and Many had compared the two cases as symptomatic of the rift and the suspicion between Washington and Tehran.
As the LA Times reported, “Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said he had met with the Iranians and described them as ‘happy and safe.’” Zebari also said that no deal had been made in order to secure their release. All detainees in Iraq are to be turned over to Iraqi authorities by the end of the year. In Zebari’s words: “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 release has not, however, enabled a much friendlier atmosphere. Just a couple of days after the Iranian detainees were released by the US, there is news that Kian Tajbakhsh, an Iranian-American scholar, has been detained by Iranian authorities for the second time in two years. Tajbakhsh has been accused in the past of fomenting unrest in Iran. Authorities appear to have detained him as part of an effort to crack down on dissent across the nation.
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