TEHRAN - The five Iranian diplomats who were held captive by U.S. forces in Iraq and freed this week arrived home on Sunday.

They were greeted at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, Tehran Governor Morteza Tamadon, a number of parliamentarians, and a number of Iraqi officials based in the Iranian capital.
Mohsen Bagheri, Mahmoud Farhadi, Majid Ghaemi, Majid Dagheri, and Abbas Jami are the five diplomats who were held captive in Iraq.
The diplomats were handed over to Iraqi officials under the terms of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) security accord signed by Baghdad and Washington in December.
------- UN should follow up freed diplomats’ case
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki urged the United Nations and other relevant international bodies to seriously follow up the abduction of the Iranian diplomats by U.S. troops in Iraq.
Mottaki praised their “courageous resistance” as a victory for Iran.
Three of the diplomats had been based at the Iranian consulate in Irbil, one had been based in Sulaymaniyah, and one had been based in Baghdad.
U.S. troops stormed the Iranian consulate in Irbil, a city in the northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan, on January 11, 2007 and arrested five diplomats under the pretext that they were fomenting violence in Iraq. Last year, two of those diplomats were released.
The abduction of Iranian diplomats by the U.S. forces was an inhumane act and a “clear breach of all international conventions,” Mottaki said on the sidelines of a ceremony held to welcome the freed diplomats in Tehran.
U.S. officials said they handed the diplomats over to the Iraqi government at its request because they were obliged to do so under the U.S.-Iraq security agreement.
The diplomats were met at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport by a cheering crowd who carried the men on their shoulders and placed garlands on their necks.
Mottaki stated that the enthusiastic welcome was a display of the Iranian nation’s delight and their clear stance toward this inhumane act.
He also said the Islamic Republic reserves the right to take legal action against the U.S. occupiers in Iraq.
The foreign minister said, “The Islamic Republic of Iran’s actions in Iraq… have always aimed to help the people of the country.”
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said the diplomats were released in line with the U.S.-Iraq security agreement and therefore it would not have an impact on Tehran’s relations with Washington.
Qashqavi told reporters that raiding a diplomatic office and arresting diplomats are violations of international conventions and regulations and Iran reserves the right to follow up the issue.
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