An Iran-backed Iraqi Shiite party that forms part of the US-installed interim leadership has been mediating with US adminstrator Paul Bremer for the release of scores of Iranian nationals being held by US troops in Iraq, a top party official told AFP. Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim “forwarded a list of Iranian prisoners currently held in Iraqi prisons made by the Iranian embassy in Baghdad,” his son and aide, Mohsen al-Hakim, told AFP on Saturday. Bremer “promised to cooperate” and added that he hoped the Iranian nationals would be freed “soon”, Hakim junior added. The SCIRI official gave no futher details, but his comments were the first official confirmation that the party — which was based in and backed by Iran during the Saddam Hussein era — had been acting as a go-between for Iran and US authorities in Iraq. Full Story
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