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Iran Blames Iraq for Banning Iranian Pilgrims
Iran on Monday blamed Iraq for banning a group of Iranian pilgrims to visit a Shiite Muslim holy site in Karabala, southern Iraq.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said prohibiting Iranian pilgrims to enter Iraq through the Khosrawi checkpoint was in violation of an agreement reached by the two countries' private sectors.
He expressed regret that the Iraqi side altered the agreement and imposed new conditions "without any previous understanding" between the two sides, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported. The Iranian foreign ministry is following up the case, he added.
Relations between Iran and Iraq cooled down again this year following a series of explosions in Tehran and Baghdad. Both sides accuse the other of supporting terrorist groups in carrying out sabotage operations.
Each of the two rivaling neighbors, which fought an eight-year bloody war in the 1980s, still hosts the other's opposition groups.
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