Iran Demands British Troops Leave Basra

BEIRUT, Feb. 17 -- Iran's foreign minister demanded the immediate withdrawal of British forces in Basra, saying that they had destabilized the southern Iraqi city near the Iranian border.

Wrapping up a three-day visit to Lebanon on Friday, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran supported the "current political process in Iraq," but he urged the incoming government to control the "escalating terrorism" targeting Iraqi civilians and to push for an immediate pullout of U.S.-led multinational forces.

"We believe that the presence of the British forces in Basra has destabilized security in this city and has had some negative effects in the form of threats against southern Iran recently," Mottaki said.

Basra is about 22 miles from a southern Iranian province that witnessed riots and bombings last year allegedly connected to Iran's Arab minority. Iran has blamed British intelligence for some of the bombings, a charge that Britain denies.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran demands an immediate withdrawal of British forces from Basra," Mottaki told reporters after talks with his Lebanese counterpart.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was visiting Germany, told reporters in Berlin: "What I would say to the Iranians is that there is no point in trying to divert attention from the issues to do with Iran by calling into question the British presence in Iraq, which is there with a U.N. mandate and Iraqi support."

Iranian officials confirmed this week that they had resumed uranium enrichment research in defiance of international mandates. Early this month, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported Iran to the U.N. Security Council, and it is scheduled to meet March 6 to consider further action that could lead to political or economic sanctions against Iran.

Mottaki's allegations seemed to be spurred by the recent publicity given to a video of what appeared to be British soldiers assaulting Iraqi boys after a street confrontation in January 2004 in the southern Iraqi city of Amarah, about 100 miles north of Basra. The British Army has launched an investigation and arrested two people.

Mottaki said British forces had behaved toward young Iraqis in an "inhuman and immoral manner that constituted a flagrant violation of human rights."