Iran says diplomat in Iraq abducted under U.S. supervision

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini Tuesday condemned the kidnapping of an Iranian diplomat in Iraq, saying it was operated under the supervision of U.S. forces there, the state media reported.

"Second secretary at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad Jalal Sharafi was kidnapped Sunday by gunmen linked to the Iraqi Defense Ministry," Hosseini was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying.

The spokesman also accused the U.S. forces in Iraq of " supervising the operation", saying, "Iran holds America responsible for the safety and life of the (abducted) diplomat."

"This aggressive action violates the international law and Iran strongly condemns it," he said, adding that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had ordered to investigate the fate of the Iranian diplomat.

Meanwhile, Iranian ambassador to Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, said that the abduction was probably "within the framework of U.S. president's order to step up encounters with Iranians", the state television reported.

However, a U.S. forces spokesman in Baghdad has denied that U.S. troops or any other affiliated Iraqi forces had participated the action.

Some 30 gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms in more than 10 military vehicles kidnapped an Iranian diplomat in Baghdad on Sunday, Dubai-based al-Arabiyah satellite channel quoted Iraqi government sources as saying on Tuesday.

The diplomat was seized in front of the branch of Iran's state- owned Bank Melli without any escort, said both the TV report and Hosseini.

This incident happened while tensions of Iran's relations with the U.S. were escalating since the Islamic Republic refused to suspend its enrichment work under UN sanction resolution and the U. S. decided to build up its military capability in the Gulf region.

This is not the first time Iran's diplomats were kidnapped in recent days. Last month, the U.S. forces in Iraq raided the Iranian consulate in Iraq's northern city of Arbil and arrested five of its staff members, accusing them of supporting Iraqi insurgents to fight with coalition forces. The arrested Iranian are still taken in custody up to now.

The United States has accused Iran of supporting the Iraqi insurgents to fight with coalition forces since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, but Tehran has denied it and saying such allegations were deliberate intervention to the Iran-Iraq ties by the U.S.

Source: Xinhua