Iran on Monday confirmed that the country has closed its border crossings with the Iraqi northern Kurdistan region in protest to U.S. detention of an Iranian official, local Mehr news agency reported.
The governor of Iran's northwestern Kordestan province, Esmail Najjar, told Mehr that the five border points have been closed since Monday morning after U.S. troops detained an Iranian official at a hotel in Iraq's Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah on Thursday.
The border crossings would be closed until the arrested Iranian man, identified as Farhadi, is released, Najjar said.
He noted Farhadi, who was is in charge of border trade in Iran's western Kermanshah province, had been invited by officials in the Iraqi northern Kurdistan region for some business affairs.
Earlier on Monday, Jamal Abdullah, an Iraqi Kurdish government spokesman, also said that Iran has closed its five border crossing points with the Iraqi northern autonomous region.
The U.S. military claims that the arrested Iranian national was member of the al-Quds Force, an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, and was an arms smuggler "involved in transporting improvised explosive devices and explosively formed penetrators into Iraq."
On Saturday, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani demanded an immediate release for the Iranian official, saying that neighboring Iran has threatened to close its border with his Kurdish region.
Source: Xinhua
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