By DPA
Baghdad : Iranian authorities closed Sunday an important border crossing between its territories and northern Iraq after US forces arrested an Iranian citizen, almost causing a diplomatic rift between Iran and the autonomous Kurdish region.
Local official Omar Farag described the move as “unexpected,” saying that closing the crossing would have its negative effect on the markets of the Kurdish region.
Farag told DPA that food prices would increase, which is considered a problem during the holy month of Ramadan, a time when both Shia and Sunni Muslims fast during the day and hold food banquets at night.
The Iranian authorities cut electricity along this stretch of border.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani sent an “angry” letter to US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C Crocker and General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, demanding the release of the Iranian delegation currently detained by the US Army.
“The Islamic Iranian republic is threatening to close the borders between Iran and (the autonomous Kurdish region),” if the Iranian delegate, who was visiting the northern city of Sulaymanyah as a member of an Iranian trade convoy, was not set free, the letter said.
The Iranian man was on an official mission in the autonomous Kurdish region, and the Kurdish government was pre-informed of his visit, according to the letter Talabani branded “a letter of anger.”
“I express our anger at the US forces’ arrest of this civilian visitor without consultation or coordination with the government of Kurdistan,” the letter published on the Iraqi presidential website said.
Talabani uses the term Kurdistan – not recognized internationally – to refer to the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq.
“This is an insult and a trespassing on the powers and rights (of the Kurdish region).”