TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki urged the United Nations and other concerned international bodies to seriously follow up the abduction of Iranian diplomats by U.S. troops in Iraq.

The five Iranian diplomats returned to Tehran on Sunday where 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 them over to the Iraqi government at its request because they were obliged to do so under a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement.
The diplomats were met at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport by a cheering crowd who carried the men on their shoulders and put garlands of flowers around their necks.
Mottaki stated that the enthusiastic welcome was both a display of Iranian nation’s delight and its clear stance toward this inhumane act.
He also said the Islamic Republic of Iran reserves the right to take legal action against U.S. occupiers in Iraq.
The foreign minister said, “The Islamic Republic of Iran’s actions in Iraq… have always been aimed at helping the people of the country.”
Meanwhile Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said the diplomats were released in accordance with the U.S.-Iraqi 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 is against international conventions and regulations and Iran reserves the right to follow up the issue