TEHRAN, 19 February 2007 — Iran’s Foreign Ministry denied yesterday that Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr was in Iran, calling statements by US and Iraqi officials saying he had traveled to Iran “psychological warfare.”
“No, he is not in Iran,” Mohammad Ali Hoseini, spokesman for the ministry told journalists at a regular press briefing in a response to a query about Sadr.
“Basically, the report is baseless and a kind of psychological warfare against Iran by the US to put more pressure on Iran,” Hoseini said in the first Iranian comment on US and Iraqi statements last week.
An adviser to Iraq’s prime minister said last Thursday that Sadr was in Iran, but denied that the cleric had fled there due to fear of arrest during a security crackdown. A member of Sadr’s bloc in Parliament said the cleric had left Iraq three weeks earlier.
The White House said yesterday the US government did not know whether Sadr was in Iran. “It is unclear,” White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said on CNN. “He may be in Iran. It is pretty clear he is not holding press conferences and making his whereabouts known.”
US and Iraqi forces have increased pressure on backers of the anti-American cleric and other militants in a major security operation that began last week.
In another development, Iraq started to reopen its borders with Iran and Syria yesterday as the US military said a joint operation with Iraqi forces has begun to stifle the vicious sectarian conflict in Baghdad. Trucks and cars began to flow over the Shalamchen border crossing between Iran and southern Iraq, three days after the premier ordered the frontiers sealed as part of the country’s latest security plan.
“We received orders today from Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki to open the border posts from 6 a.m. this morning,” Gen. Rahdi Mohassen of the Iraqi border force told reporters at border post.
A senior security official in Baghdad confirmed that two main routes into Syria and four into Iran had reopened.
