Iran to sue U.S. over illegal treatment of detained Iranian diplomats

Iran's Majlis (Parliament) Speaker Ali Larijani said Tuesday that the parliament will sue the United States over the illegal treatment of detained Iranian diplomats in Iraq, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported, according to Xinhua.

    Majlis will take the complaint to the international bodies and to the United Nations, Larijani was quoted as saying.

    "The Americans have committed crimes due to the physical and spiritual pressures they have inflicted on the Iranian diplomats and due to the long and lonely imprisonment of them, the Foreign Policy and National Security Commission of Majlis will sue (the U.S.) by taking the complaint to the United Nations," said Larijani.

    He made the remarks in a meeting with the freed Iranian diplomats who were captured by the U.S. troops after a raid of the Iranian Liaison Office in Iraq's Kurdish city of Arbil on Jan. 11,2007.

    In July, the five medium level diplomats were freed by the U.S. military after more than two years in detention.

    Upon their arrival in Tehran, Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters that "U.S. kidnapping of Iranian diplomats was an inhuman act ... we reserve the right to legally follow up this kidnapping case."

    Upon the raid, the U.S. military said the Iranian Liaison Office was used by the Iranian Revolution Guards as a local headquarters. However, both Iranian and Kurdish autonomous region officials denied the accusation, insisting that the target was a diplomatic mission.