Moscow, Jan 12 (RIA Novosti) The arrest of five Iranian consulate officials in Iraq by US military is in open violation of the multinational forces' mandate, the Russian foreign ministry said Friday.
US servicemen broke into the Iranian Consulate General Wednesday after disarming guards in Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, detaining five officials and seizing documents and computers as part of what they called an anti-terrorist operation.
"Such sensational allegations have to be backed by substantial evidence," said Russian foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin.
"This is a serious violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations," he said in a reference to a document adopted in 1963.
--RIA Novosti