PM receives heads of diplomatic missions in Iraq over crisis with Syria

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki received in Baghdad on Thursday the heads of Arab and foreign diplomatic missions in Iraq over the crisis with Syria, according to a statement by Maliki’s office. “Maliki showed members of the diplomatic missions in the country press releases by the dissolved Baath Party coming from Syria which call for ‘destroying the political process’,” read the statement as received by Iraqi News. Iraqi-Syrian relations have been recently strained after the bloody Aug. 19 bombing attacks that left 82 people killed and 1203 others wounded. The Iraqi government accused Baathists residing in Syria of involvement in the blasts and called on Syria to hand them over. “The Iraqi government has been seeking solutions to the problems it has inherited from the former regime with the countries of the region and the world. To make a point on our honest wish to improve relations with Syria, we’ve signed an agreement to set up a high-powered strategic cooperation council,” the statement quoted Maliki as saying. He said some neighboring countries, considering the presence of the Multi-National Force (MNF) in Iraq as a threat to their national security, began to interfere in Iraq’s internal affairs on the pretext of resisting the occupation. “After the withdrawal of U.S. forces, this matter is no longer acceptable. We would deep this (interference) as act of animosity,” said the Iraqi premier. He pointed out that the attack on two sovereign ministries – the foreign affairs and finance – is a major crime and would only prolong the Iraqi people’s suffering, adding the crisis with Syria is not new. “We’ve had contacts at various levels with Syrian officials on the activities of the dissolved Baath Party leaders and terrorist organizations working against Iraq from within Syrian territories,” he said. “We’ve offered information and documents, the recent of which were during my recent visit to Damascus and meetings with Syrian officials. We heard good words about cooperation, but the activities of these organizations did not stop and rather increased. We’ve also provided security intelligence reports on a meeting held in al-Zabadani area on July 30, 2009 that comprised Baathists and takfirists in the presence of Syrian intelligence officials,” Maliki pointed out. He wondered “why is there insistence on harboring armed organizations and elements wanted by the Iraqi judiciary and the Interpol on Syrian territories?” “We don’t have any other option but to ask the UN Security Council to form an international criminal tribunal because Iraq is facing a serious threat from neighbors,” he said. The Iraqi prime minister spoke of an “infiltration into Iraqi territories a few days ago by a group one of whose members was killed and the others escaped back to Syria. The operation is a rehash of another one year ago when a terrorist group entered Iraq, killed 10 policemen and returned to Syrian lands”. “We’ve welcomed Turkish mediation and offered information and maps. We told a Turkish minister that the Syrian side would deny this but we reminded him of the issue of Abdullah Öcalan ,” said Maliki. Abdullah “Apo” Öcalan (born April 4, 1948) is a Kurdish militant leader, who in 1978 founded the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by a number of states and organizations, and has been leading an armed campaign inside Turkey since 1984, with the intent of creating an independent Kurdish state. Öcalan has been imprisoned by the Turkish state since 1999 on Imrali Island in the Turkish Sea of Marmara. Maliki thanked “the states that condemned the terrorist operation and hosted numbers of the wounded victims of the terrorist bombing attacks to treat them inside their hospitals”. AmR (I) 1