Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Monday September 24, 2007
The Guardian
The Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, showed an unexpected streak of stubbornness yesterday in his stand-off with the US over the Blackwater shootings, insisting that action had to be taken against the private security firm ...
Although the Iraqi government's immediate response was to order the expulsion of Blackwater, the guards are still in Iraq and resumed work on Friday. The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, has pleaded for them to remain and the row has turned into a test of Iraqi autonomy ...
A new point of tension emerged yesterday over the US military forces' arrest of an Iranian on Thursday. Mr Maliki, a Shia Muslim who has a good relationship with Tehran, said the man had been invited to Iraq. "The government of Iraq is an elected one and sovereign. When it gives a visa it is responsible for the visa. We consider the arrest ... of this individual who holds an Iraqi visa and a
passport to be unacceptable."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2175662,00.html