US arrest of Iranian official brought rare signs of unhappiness from the Kurds

[dajoki]

U.S. moves in Iraq may push Iraqi and Iranian governments closer
The US arrest of an Iranian official to Iraq has resulted in closed borders between the two Middle Eastern countries – a decision that may take an economic toll.
By Dan Murphy
from the September 25, 2007 edition
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0924/p99s01-duts.html

Iran shut most of its border crossings with Northern Iraq on Monday to protest the US military's arrest of an Iranian official who had been visiting Iraq as part of an official delegation.

The detention in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah of the Iranian, who was visiting Iraq at the behest of both the Iraqi central government and the semiautonomous Kurdish government in the north, has brought protests from the Iraqi government as well as rare signs of unhappiness with the US from the Kurds, who are usually the most pro-American of any Iraqi faction, the Associated Press reports.

<<snip>>

"This closure from the Iranian side will have a bad effect on the economic situation of the Kurdish government and will hurt the civilians as well," said Jamal Abdullah, a spokesman for the autonomous Kurdish government. "We are paying the price of what the Americans have done by arresting the Iranian."

<<snip>>

"I am informing you (the US military) of our displeasure over the arrest of the Iranian civilian official without consulting the government of Kurdistan and that is a humiliation for the regional administration," (Iraqi President Jalal) Talabani said in a statement released by his office in Baghdad.

"He was an official on a commercial mission with the knowledge of the federal government in Baghdad and the government of Kurdistan," Talabani said in a statement addressed to General David Petraeus, the head of US forces in Iraq, and US ambassador Ryan Crocker.

[groovedaddy]

1. Some how, I don't think Petraeus will give a shit about

who is happy and who isn't. He's only there to please Bush.