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| Iraq |
| Iran receives Iraq warning over shelling of the north |
| 2007-08-30 |
| Iraq's government has demanded that Iran stop shelling predominantly Kurdish-populated areas inside Iraq's northeastern border, warning that relations would be hurt, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said late on Tuesday. Iraqi Kurdish officials have complained about cross-border shelling from neighboring Iran since the middle of the month. Cross-border fighting occasionally occurs as Iraq's neighbors, Turkey and Iran, combat the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the anti-Iranian Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK), linked to the PKK, operating from bases in Iraq's mountainous and remote north and northeastern regions. "Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Moham-med al-Haj Hamoud summoned the Iranian ambassador on Tuesday to protest the shelling," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "The deputy foreign minister demanded the Iranian side immediately cease these attacks," the statement said. "The affair would affect negatively the good neighborly relationship between the two countries," it added. The government in Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdish region said on Tuesday that 450 families from 20 villages along the border had been evacuated due to the shelling. "Meanwhile, the regional government in northern Iraq was prepared to send a letter condemning Turkey to Baghdad, to be passed on to the Turkish government," private CNN-Türk said Wednesday. However, Turkish Foreign Ministry officials contacted by Today's Zaman said there was no such document received by Ankara as of Wednesday afternoon. There has been no official comment from Tehran about the shelling. Over the weekend, Iraq's beleaguered Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki took a swipe at the governments of Turkey and Iran, both countries he has visited recently, and challenged their recent artillery bombardments inside Iraq in the Kurdish-dominated northern region where PKK and PJAK terrorists have found refuge. "The bombardments by Iran and Turkey are violations of Iraq's sovereignty. We will not allow these violations, but this must come through diplomatic channels. We will inform our brothers in Turkey and Iran about that through the Foreign Ministry," al-Maliki said at a news conference held in Baghdad. Maliki's remarks came after Turkey's former foreign minister, now President Abdullah Gül, voiced support for a possible cross-border operation by neighboring Iran into Iraq to fight PJAK there last week, asserting countries have the right to defend their borders. Also Wednesday, the regional Kurdish parliament in northern Iraq held an emergency meeting led by Parliament Speaker Adnan Mufti and called on both Iran and Turkey to resolve the existing problems through dialogue instead of launching bombardments on the Iraqi soil. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |