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Kerry, Zarif Discuss Americans Missing in Iraq

Kerry, Zarif Discuss Americans Missing in Iraq
Kerry, Zarif Discuss Americans Missing in Iraq

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday he had spoken to his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif about the fate of three Americans missing in Baghdad.

"I've raised it with Foreign Minister Zarif," Kerry told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, AFP reported. The two top diplomats had met on the sidelines of the forum earlier in the day.

"I asked him ... if Iran knew any way to provide help or if there were some way they could have an impact on getting the right kind of outcome," Kerry said.

"He said he would take that under advisement and try to do what he can. He didn't have any immediate knowledge whatsoever about it."

Iraqi authorities are searching for the three Americans, whom the Baghdad security command said were seized last week from a "suspicious apartment" in south Baghdad.

Iraqi officials have dubbed the case a kidnapping, but US officials still speak cautiously of a "disappearance," in what could become a politically explosive case. The three were allegedly taken just as Kerry and Zarif were finalizing the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal and the release of five US prisoners held in Iran. Zarif also met some other high-level foreign officials on the margins of the gathering, including Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende, Klaus Martin Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the forum, and Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.

This year's edition of the annual event launched on January 20 and is scheduled to run for three days.

 

Financialtribune.com