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TEHRAN: Five Iranian diplomats who were freed by the US military in Iraq last week after 30 months in detention arrived back home to a hero's welcome in Tehran on Sunday.
The US military freed the five on Thursday after arresting them in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil on January 11, 2007, accusing them of arming militias in Iraq and inciting anti-US attacks in the war-torn country.
Iran insists that the five men are diplomats and protested that they were arrested in violation of international diplomatic conventions.
"Iran reserves the right to legally follow this savage action by the government of (former US president George W.) Bush," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said at a press conference after greeting the men.
The five flew in to Tehran's Mehrabad airport where they were welcomed with garlands of flowers and cheered by a crowd of people including Mottaki and other officials.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the release of the five was in line with a security accord between Baghdad and Washington under which all detainees in US custody should be transferred to the Iraqi authorities.
The detention of the five had long been an extra bone of contention in the decades of hostile relations between Iran and the United States, which accuses Tehran of stoking unrest in Iraq.
US officials maintained the men had no diplomatic status and the White House also denied the five had been freed as a diplomatic gesture to Iran.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi has said the five were "innocent" and had been arrested in breach of international rules covering privileges and immunity for diplomatic missions.
Soon after taking office in January, US President Barack Obama called for dialogue with Iran after three decades of severed ties and years of international tensions over Tehran's nuclear drive.
But relations took a turn for the worse again after Iran cracked down on massive public protests over the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June.
- AFP/so
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