Three U.S. citizens arrested at the Iran-Iraq border will not be relieved soon, Iranian Parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Chairman Aladdin Burujerdi was quoted as saying by the Iranian Mehr news agency.
In summer 2009, Iran arrested three U.S. citizens for illegal crossing the Iran-Iraq border. They moved to Iran making a study tour of Iraq on the Kurdistan province bordered Iran. Iran accuses the Americans of 'spying'.
In 2007, the U.S. forces arrested five Iranian diplomats in Iraq. "They were kept in prison for two years, and Americans should not rush with the release of these three persons," Burujerdi said during his speech in the Iranian Horramabad city in the Loristan province.
Representative of one of the European countries embassy in Tehran was also arrested during the riots on Ashura Day, Burujerdi said. "The embassy's employee was released within 24 hours after his arrest following the intervention of the Embassy," he said, without specifying the country.