Iran has rejected a British offer to dispatch an envoy to Basra to receive remains of some 200 bodies that it says are those of Iranian soldiers killed in the 1980-88 war with Iraq. The Persian-language newspaper `Javan' on Wednesday quoted a ranking army commander as saying that accepting the offer could be interpreted as Iran's recognizing the occupation of Iraq by the invading US-British troops. `Javan' quoted Brigadier-General Mirfeisal Baqerzadeh, the head of the search and recovery committee for those missing in action, as saying that Iran's Foreign Ministry is currently following certain procedures to receive the remains through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Baqerzadeh had said that the remains were those of Iranian soldiers discovered over the recent months in joint recovery operations, and that they were to be repatriated to Iran before the war started.
Uh huh, funny how they all died from head wounds.
The daily further quoted the army commander as saying that Iran will take delivery of the remains from the ICRC, once it announces readiness to do so, in the Shalamcheh border point with Iraq.
Whenever, they ain't going nowhere. |