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Iraqi Foreign Minister says terrorists get arms from Iran |
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Thursday, 18 August 2005 |
Iran Focus
 London, Aug. 18 – Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told a London-based Arabic newspaper on Wednesday that Iran continues to be the transit point for arms smuggled to insurgents in Iraq.
“Credible intelligence shows that arms smuggling continues through the Iran-Iraq border and the shipment of arms to terrorist groups in Iraq is a clear reality”, Zebari said in an interview with the daily Al-Hayat.
“This is to some extent similar to the continuing transfer of large amounts of illegal drugs from Iran to Iraq”, Iraq’s Foreign Minister said.
“Iran’s declared policy towards Iraq is balanced, but there exist painful issues which we believe Iran must resolve, including the issue of weapons smuggling to armed groups in Iraq and the continued entry of foreign terrorists into Iraq via this country”, Zebari said.
“One of our requests was that Iran change its policy towards Iraq, including for it not to sign bilateral deals with individual Iraqi provinces without the knowledge or approval of the central government [in Iraq">”, he added.
The Iraqi Foreign Minister asked Tehran not to “sign agreements or dialogue or joint-contracts with parties separate to the central government in power, since such violations are not acceptable under the principle of bilateral cooperation”.
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