Baghdad on Thursday rejected accusations by Tehran that Iraq was responsible for the recent "terrorist" attacks by Iran's armed opposition movement, the People's Mujahedeen, the official INA news agency reported.
"The accusations are surprising and show that the Iranian leaders are behaving in a detestable way," an Iraqi foreign ministry spokesman told INA.
"Iraq has nothing to do with the activities of the People's Mujahedeen and the plans of action they have against the regime in place in Iran," the spokesman said.
"The Iranian leaders are issuing false accusations to draw attention away from their country's political, social and economic crises," he said.
He warned the Iranian government "against any hostile action against Iraq to try to defuse the pressure on Iran and turn attention abroad."
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi on Wednesday accused Baghdad of being responsible for the recent "terrorist" attacks by the People's Mujahedeen.
"The terrorist activities of the Monafeqin are supported by Iraq," said Asefi, using the Islamic word for "hypocrites" applied to the Mujahedeen by the authorities.
Asefi's remarks came just four days after the Mujahedeen carried out a mortar attack in Tehran's Pasdaran district, near the headquarters of the intelligence ministry, which officials there said damaged property but caused no casualties.
The Iraqi spokesman said it was "the Iranian opposition, and not Iraq" that was responsible for the attack, as well as for demonstrations in Berlin against President Mohammad Khatami's visit there and clashes with police at Tehran University.
For its part, the Mujahedeen said Thursday that the "organization's operations in Iran are undertaken by its leadership in Iran and are not linked to other countries."
Tehran's accusations "aim to export the internal problems (of Iran) and open the way to air or missile attacks against Mujahedeen bases in Iraq," they said in a statement - BAGHDAD (AFP)
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