Mystery surrounds 'kidnap' of Iranian envoy in Karbala

London Independent | August 9 2004

Mystery last night surrounded the fate of an Iranian diplomat after a video purportedly made by an Iraqi militant group said he had been taken hostage. The video, transmitted by the television network al-Arabiya, showed a bearded man said to be Faridoun Jihani talking inaudibly to the camera.

Nine separate forms of identification were displayed for the man, including a passport and a business card identifying him as the "consul for the Islamic Republic of Iran in Karbala".

The group, which called itself the "Islamic Army in Iraq" accused Mr Jihani of provoking sectarian war in Iraq, and warned Iran not to interfere in Iraq's affairs, the television network said. The kidnappers did not appear to threaten the Iranian or make any demands. A group using the same name claimed responsibility last month for seizing two Pakistanis.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry confirmed that Mr Jihani was missing and said he "disappeared on Wednesday night on the road from Baghdad to Karbala. After he failed to reach Karbala, all efforts to find his whereabouts failed".

The kidnap claim is puzzling because the Iraqi government have been the most vociferous in protesting against interference by the Iranians in their internal affairs, and even fuelling the insurgency. The Iraqi press at the weekend reported the arrest of other Iranian agents in Baghdad and published a picture of the identity card of one.

There have even been unofficial suggestions here that Mr Jihani's presence in Iraq may have have caused concern to the Iraqi authorities. The Prime Minister, Ayad Allawi did not refer to the presence of Iranian agents at his news conference on Saturday, but he said that just as Iraq did not want to interfere in the internal affairs of neighbouring states, so it did not want its neighbours to interfere in the affairs of Iraq.

Iran, a Shia Muslim country, with close links to some leaders of Iraq's Shia population, is routinely accused in Iraq of helping to fund explicitly Shia political parties in the hope of influencing the outcome of elections planned here for next January. A week ago in Baghdad, Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, in a press conference, warned Iran against interference in the affairs of Iraq.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry said it was discussing Mr Jihani's fate with the Swiss embassy, the British embassy and Iraq's charge d'affaires in Tehran. It added: "There is no reliable information about the reason and motivation of this action."

Last month, Mohammed Mamdouh Helmi Qutb, an Egyptian diplomat, was abducted outside a mosque in Baghdad. He was freed after three days.