TEHRAN, May. 02 (Mehr News Agency) -- Iranian Ambassador to Baghdad Hassan Kazemi-Qomi has reiterated that Tehran supports a crackdown on lawbreakers and illegal armed groups by the Iraqi government.

"Iran Supports serious confrontation of the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki with lawbreakers and (illegally) armed groups," Kazemi-Qomi said in an interview with Asharq Alawsat newspaper released on Thursday.

Tehran supports the actions that the Iraqi government is taking to establish security in Iraq, the newspaper quoted the ambassador as saying.

Asked if Tehran supports efforts by the central government to disarm the Mahdi Army, Kazemi-Qomi said Iran likes to see the issue revolved through national dialogue and constitutionally.

The ambassador added supporting the Iraqi government is one of Iran's foreign policy priorities.

Meanwhile, Iraqi government spokesperson Ali al-Dabbagh told Asharq Alawsat that the Iranians are making positive efforts for helping to establish security in Baghdad.
He said a delegation of high-ranking Iraqi officials will soon visit Iran.

Al-Dabbagh also denounced the recent statements by certain Iraqi officials alleging that Iran is responsible for some security woes in the country.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih this week described Baghdad's ties with Tehran as among the most complex it had. "We cannot afford to have a precarious relationship that could degenerate and go back to a state of conflict that we have had in a previous era," Salih told Reuters.

Such statements are not the Iraqi government's views, and the government announces its views only through the official spokesman, or by issuing statements, al-Dabbagh asserted.

... Payvand News - 05/02/08 ...