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The US military said on Tuesday that it would release nine Iranians being held in Iraq, including two of the so-called “Arbil five” arrested in January on suspicion of supporting armed militia in the country. 

“It is our intent to release nine Iranians currently in custody in the near future,” Rear Admiral Greg Smith, a US military spokesman, said at a press conference. “These individuals have been assessed to be of no continuing value, nor do they pose a further threat to Iraqi security,” he said. Another US military spokesman said that there were 20 Iranians held by the US-led multinational coalition in Iraq, including the nine who will soon be released. The US periodically reviews the cases of militant suspects in detention and may release them if they are deemed not to pose a security risk and do not have useful intelligence.

The arrest of the five, whom Iraqi officials said were employees at an unofficial Iranian consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil, was a large source of contention between Iran and the US. Tehran insisted that they were diplomats. The US military said that the five were not accredited diplomats and were members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard who were suspected of aiding Iraqi militants. Iranian diplomats complained about the detentions numerous times in talks with US diplomats in Baghdad earlier this year and the grievance may have contributed to Iran’s seizure of 15 British military personnel in March.

The US, in turn, accused Iran of providing arms and other support for Iraqi militia groups, a charge that Tehran denied. Recently, however, US officers said Iran might have cut back such support. “We hope to confirm in the coming weeks and months that Iran has been honouring its pledge [to improve security in Iraq and confirm] through further verification that the flow of munitions has indeed stopped,” Admiral Smith said yesterday. In another sign of a possible easing of tensions, an official in the northern Kurdistan region said yesterday that Iran had formally opened a consulate in Arbil. “Today the Islamic Republic of Iran opened its consulate office, after getting the approval of the federal government in Baghdad,” said Falah Mustafa Bakir, the regional Kurdistan government’s head of foreign relations. Meanwhile, US, Iraqi and Iranian diplomats are expected to meet again in the near future for the latest in a series of talks between the three parties on security in Iraq.
 
Iran’s government should hold direct talks with the US to avoid possible military action against the Islamic Republic, the country’s top dissident cleric said in a speech, Reuters reports from Tehran. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, an architect of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, was among Iranian leaders who endorsed the 444-day occupation of the US embassy shortly after the revolution. The event led Washington to break diplomatic ties, which Grand Ayatollah Montazeri – who later fell out of favour for criticising Iran’s rulers – reportedly said should now be restored.
 
Source: FT

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday said she felt a moral duty to protect Israel and would stand firm in the face of Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its threats to wipe the Jewish state off the map.

After receiving a prestigious award from the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Merkel said the prize gave her a responsibility to fight racism and to foster close ties between Germans and the Jewish community. “It means intervening to protect the safety of Israel today and in the future, as well as our common values of democracy and the rule of law.” The chancellor, who received the Leo Baeck Prize in Berlin, said Germany only fully accepted its role in the Holocaust after reunification because the communist East German regime rejected moral responsibility for the crimes of the Nazis.

“It took more than 40 years for Germany as a whole to accept the responsibility it carries to ensure the safety of Israel,” Merkel said. “Only by accepting Germany’s past can we lay the foundation for the future. Only in as far as we acknowledge our responsibility for the moral catastrophe of Germany’s history, can we build a humane future.” She said the country pay could not merely pay lip service to these principles but will be judged on how firmly it reacts to breaches inside its borders but also beyond them. “How firmly do we react when the Iranian president wants to destroy Israel and to belittle the Holocaust?” Merkel said Germany would celebrate the upcoming 60th anniversary of the creation of the Jewish state with joy but not without fear. “I believe that in the face of the threat Iran’s nuclear programme poses to Israel, our responsibility must be more than empty words.

These words must be backed up by deeds. My government will follow its words with action.” She reiterated her support for tougher UN sanctions against Iran if it fails to comply with the demands of the international community to halt sensitive nuclear work. “We and our partners are working towards a diplomatic solution. Part of this process is a readiness on the part of Germany to agree to wider, stricter sanctions if Iran does not comply.” Merkel flies to the United States later this week for talks with US President George W. Bush expected to focus on how to resolve the Iranian crisis. Iran denies Western accusations that its nuclear programme is a cover for developing atomic weapons.

Source: AFP

Iranian authorities have arrested student leader Ali Azizi, who is a senior member of the main Islamic students’ association, his mother told the ISNA news agency on Tuesday.

“Agents came to our house on Sunday and arrested my son,” she said. “I have had no news of my son since his arrest”. No reason was given for the arrest of Azizi, who belongs to the Unity Consolidation Bureau. Dozens of Iranian students held a new protest on Sunday calling for the release of three detained colleagues and shouting slogans against officials, ISNA reported.

The demonstration at the management faculty of Tehran University was the third since the three students from Amir Kabir University were given jail sentences of up to three years last month. The three were jailed on charges of printing anti-Islamic images in four student newspapers, accusations they vehemently deny. The ISNA report said the latest protest was also aimed at the arrest of another three colleagues at a similar demonstration the previous week at Alameh Tabatabai University in the capital. The demonstrations come after students held a rare protest against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he gave a speech at Tehran University last month, likening him to the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Source: AFP