Moscow, Jan 12: Strongly reacting to the American
military raid on the Iranian Consulate in Iraq, Russia on Friday
said the US act was "absolutely unacceptable" and violated
international law.
"It is absolutely unacceptable for soldiers to storm a
foreign country's consular institution on the territory of a
different country. It is a gross violation of the Vienna
convention on diplomatic relations," Russian Foreign Ministry
spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said in a statement today.
Multinational forces reportedly detained five Iranians
in a pre-dawn raid of Tehran's diplomatic mission in the
northern city of Irbil yesterday.
Russia also criticised US President George W Bush's new
plans to send more than 20,000 troops to Iraq, saying the new
strategy shows that Washington plans to achieve a result by
force, without taking into consideration proposals to
establish a dialogue between major Iraqi groups.
"Apparently the calculation remains the same: to achieve
the Iraqi settlement by force, without going beyond the
framework of the usual scheme and without taking into
consideration proposals to establish a dialogue between the
main Iraqi groups with the support of all its neighbours,
including Syria and Iran," he said.
Earlier commenting of the developments in Iraq, former
Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov said things have
unfolded exactly as President Vladimir Putin had warned to his
US counterpart.
Speaking on state-run 24-hour news channel Vesti,
Primakov, however, said that any hasty US withdrawal now
would be disastrous for Iraq and the region.
Bureau Report
