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Iraq says Iran `punishing' Kurds

Iraq's foreign minister said late on Saturday that Iran is punishing the Kurdish region for something the Kurdish authorities were not responsible for -- the arrest of an Iranian official by the US military on Sept. 20.

Hoshyar Zebari said he raised the issue of Iran's closure of five border crossing points into the northern Kurdish region with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly's ministerial meeting.

Zebari said he told Mottaki "this is not a wise move, this can only undermine the atmosphere of confidence, and you're punishing the whole region for an act that they were not responsible for."

The US military said the Iranian, Mahmudi Farhadi, was a member of the Quds Force, a branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that they say smuggles weapons to Shiite extremists.

The arrest has raised friction between US and Iraqi authorities at a time when tempers were already running high over the Sept. 16 killing of 11 Iraqi civilians allegedly by security guards from Blackwater USA, which protects US diplomats in Iraq. Blackwater insists its guards acted legally and were returning fire from armed insurgents.

Zebari said he told the Iranians the border closure "can only undermine the atmosphere of confidence" between the two countries.

He said the Iraqi government has asked the US embassy in Baghdad for all the facts about the incident, and reiterated Iraqi calls for the US to release the Iranian official. But Zebari said the Iranian remains in US custody, and the border remains shut.

"I think that was a direct response to the detention of an Iranian official by the US military in Sulaimaniyah, and this was a collective punishment for the region, for something that the Kurdish regional authorities were not responsible," Zebari said.

"And I personally feel it's unfair and unjust, and it has affected the economic life of the region. Prices have gone up," he said. "The region is dependent in some way on fuel supplies from Iran, but the Iranians want to make a point here."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied in an interview on Monday that Iran closed its border with Iraq over the arrest of the Iranian.

"On an annual basis, millions of Iranians visit Iraq and Iraq's holy sites for pilgrimage purposes," he said.

"Recently, as a result of some clashes and the explosion of some bombs, a number of Iranian civilian casualties arose. So the government has asked Iranian citizens to avoid traveling for pilgrimage purposes until security is restored. The commercial goods and freight transactions continue, and the travel across the border for those purposes continue," Ahmadinejad said.

Also see story:
Iraq's Kurdish region trying to restore economy

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