Iran condemns attack on diplomats in Iraq
Tehran Times Political Desk

TEHRAN - Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini has condemned the attack on an Iranian Embassy vehicle that took place in Baghdad on Thursday.

Gunmen opened fire on a car carrying Iranian diplomats on the way to the Kazemain district of Baghdad Thursday afternoon.

Those wounded, including two Iranian diplomats, another Iranian citizen, and an Iraqi administrative employee, are in stable condition, AP reported.

“The (U.S.) occupiers are responsible for the security of diplomats and international and political organizations in Iraq,” Hosseini said here on Friday.

“Terrorism and occupation are promoting insecurity and instability in Iraq,” he added.

He went on to say that Iran will seriously pursue the matter through the Iraqi government’s investigation of the attack.

---------Analysts blame U.S. for attack

Political analyst Ahmad Bakhshayeshi blamed the United States for the attack on the Iranian diplomats.

He said the attack was part of the U.S. efforts to make Iranians feel unsafe in Iraq.

“They wanted to tell Iran that it should not insist on its positions,” Bakhshayeshi told the Mehr News Agency on Friday.

Iranian diplomats were attacked because Iran had succeeded in brokering an agreement between the Al-Mahdi Army and the Iraqi National Accord, and the U.S. did not like this, he stated.

Bakhshayeshi said the U.S. is responsible for the attacks. “As long as the United Nations approves of the occupation of Iraq, the U.S. is responsible for everything that happens in Iraq, including the unrest and the attacks,” he opined.

Elias Hazrati, a senior member of Iran’s National Confidence Party, told the Mehr News Agency on Friday that the U.S. is directly responsible for the attack on the Iranian diplomats.

“The U.S. is throwing fuel on the fire of unrest in Iraq. They are trying to give people the impression that the Iraqi government is incapable of managing the country’s affairs,” Hazrati stated.

He went on to say that the U.S. is trying to convince the opponents of its military presence in Iraq that there can be no security in the country without the United States.

“But all nations know that the U.S. is not seeking to establish security in Iraq through its continued presence. The occupiers intend to appropriate the national oil resources of Iraq,” he added.

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