Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki: US to Free Iranian Diplomats (spies) in Iraq

TEHRAN, May 18--Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Friday that his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari had quoted the US officials as saying that the five Iranian diplomats kidnapped in Iraq would be freed late May or early June.

AlAlam.IR : Mottaki s (Iran's FM) said in his meeting with the families of the five diplomats that the ministry is also trying to find a mechanism to receive compensation from the US administration for the American troops' raid on Iran's Consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil, which led to the kidnapping of the diplomats.

Mottaki said that in his meetings with Iraqi president, prime minister, foreign minister and other senior officials "I made it clear that the Iraqi government must work to release the Iranian diplomats.""The United States should admit to its Iraq policy failures at the upcoming Tehran-Washington meeting on Iraqi security, if it wants talks to make headway," Mottaki added.The US and Iranian envoys are to meet in Baghdad on May 28 for talks on Iraq's security in what is believed to be the first official encounter between the two countries in three decades.

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