Iraqi Kurdistan denounces U.S. raid on Iranian consulate

[sabra]

http://www.aswataliraq.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=34871&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Iraqi Kurdistan denounces U.S. raid on Iranian consulate

Erbil, Jan 11, (VOI) – Kurdistan on Thursday denounced the U.S. raid on the Iranian consulate in Erbil and detaining its employees, an official Kurdish spokesman said.
“The Attack on a consulate that enjoys immunity under Vienna agreement for consular relations in 1963… is not in line with efforts done to establish stability and broaden it to include all of Iraq,” the spokesman for Kurdistan presidency and government said in a statement, a copy of which was received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

[Bicoastal]

1. So now we're going out of our way to piss off the KURDS?

They're the only group in that country who by and large don't give our soldiers any trouble. Now this!

The White House doesn't have a diplomatic bone in its collective body, I swear....

[kysrsoze]

2. Makes sense. We fucked them over once already. I'm sure we're in thick with Turkey

on this.

[IndianaGreen]

6. Bush has yet to piss off the Turkmen of Iraq

Give him time and he will.

[Supersedeas]

3. an occupying power operating willy-nilly in a sovereign country?

[Penndems]

4. This is a direct violation of Article 22 of the 1961 Vienna Convention

on Diplomatic Relations. To wit:

"1. The premises of the mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving State may not enter them, except with the consent of the head of the mission.

2. The receiving State is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the mission or impairment of its dignity.

3. The premises of the mission, their furnishings and other property thereon and the means of transport of the mission shall be immune from search, requisition, attachment or execution."

If we had evidence that the Iranian Consulate in Irbil was a conduit for funneling war materiel to the insurgents in Iraq (Iran isn't a "good guy"), we could've presented our case to the United Nations. We wouldn't have looked like an aggressor, and we would've gain the support, assistance and sympathy of the world community.

An embassy or consulate is sovereign ground. When you travel overseas and require the services of a United States Embassy or Consulate, that embassy/consulate is on American soil. Invading that embassy or consulate could be construed as an act of aggression.

[IndianaGreen]

5. Bush turned the evil Saddam into an martyr, and now he is poised

to unite the Sunni, Shia, and Kurds against us. Bush has two more years left to do great harm to our nation.