Trying to show who’s boss. From AFP, with thanks to Sr. Soph:
TEHRAN, Jan 13, 2007 (AFP) – Iran called on Iraq to work to release five Iranian officials arrested by US forces in Iraq and stop American “adventurism” in the war-ravaged country, the IRNA agency reported Saturday.
“America’s illegal and adventurist acts should stop in Iraq,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manoucheher Mottaki told his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari in a telephone conversation, the agency said.
“These acts contradict the Vienna Convention (on diplomatic relations) and they are an obvious intervention in the brotherly relations between the two countries,” he added.
“Considering the Iraqi government’s responsibilty in this matter, we demand that (they) seriously seek to release the Iranian consulate members in Arbil.”
Six Iranians were arrested in a night-time swoop by US forces on an office in the northern Iraq city of Arbil Thursday, one of whom has since been released.