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Saturday, December 25, 2004
Iraq to Air Footage of Iranian Meddling
December 24, 2004
Iran Focus
iranfocus.com
Baghdad -- The Iraqi Defence Minister stated that Iraq would soon display footage of Iranian meddling throughout the country. Hazem Shaalan said that Iraqi security forces were able to obtain foreign satellite footage of 50 suicide vehicles entering the country from Iran.
In an interview with the Saudi daily, al-Watan, Shaalan also added that 14 of the 50 vehicles had explosives installed and were ready for suicide missions while the remainder were caught whilst they were being fitted with the explosives.
The defence chief said that the footage along with other documents and evidence of Iranian meddling would be aired on Iraqi TV stations, before Iraq's upcoming elections, as soon as Iraq’s interim-Prime Minster, Ayad Allawi, gave the final approval.
The minister apparently made the remarks in reply to recent Iranian officials’ demands for further proof of their alleged meddling in Iraqi affairs.
“Diplomatic negotiations with Iran serves no purpose”, he said, adding that he believed that all diplomatic channels with Iran had been exhausted with no concrete results.
Iraqi interim-government officials have arrested a large number of Iranian agents who had been rounded up in Iraqi cities whilst planning or attempting to carry out terrorist operations. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid-Reza Asefi, recently announced that some “1,500 Iranians were currently in Iraqi prisons”, accused of being terrorists.
Asked about his recent comments on Iran, Shaalan said that he stood by what he said and would not retract his comments until Iran fundamentally changed its behaviour. Last week Shaalan said: “We discovered that the key to terrorism is in Iran, which is the number one enemy for Iraq”.
link to original article
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