ATHENS, Greece -- Iran warned Tuesday that fighting may erupt with Iraq because of Baghdad's support of Iranian rebels and asked the U.N. Security Council to take up the matter, Tehran radio said.
The warning came two days after Iranian warplanes crossed into Iraqi territory to bomb a training camp of Iranian rebels calling themselves the Mojahedin Khalq, or People's Holy Warriors.
A commentary broadcast on Tehran radio said Iraq was 'giving illegal support' to the Mojahedin Khalq Organization and its actions were contrary to U.N. Security Council Resolution 598, under which the two countries ended their eight-year war in 1988.
The state radio, monitored in Athens, said the presence of the Iranian rebel group on Iraqi soil, from where it allegedly attacked two border villages in Iraq last week, posed a threat to peace, and the Security Council should consider the matter.
It said the Security Council also should discuss attacks by Mojahedin Khalq supporters on Iranian embassies in Europe and North America, although Iran has taken up the matter bilaterally with the host countries where the attacks occurred.
At U.N. headquarters in New York Monday, Iranian Ambassador Kamal Kharazi handed a letter to the Security Council president saying the Iranian attack inside Iraqi territory Sunday was an act of self-defense.
The official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted Kharazi as saying four people were killed in a Mojahedin attack on two border villages in Iran Saturday, seven wounded and several kidnapped.
Kharazi said Iran's retaliatory attack on a Mojahedin base near Khalis north of Baghdad was in keeping with the U.N. charter. Tehran 'took necessary and proportionate measures in exercise of its legitimate right of self-defense,' he said.
At least eight Iranian F-4 Phantoms crossed the border into Iraq Sunday to attack the Mojahedin base. One Iranian warplane was shot down during the attack and two crewmen were captured.
'Kharazi made it clear that Tehran has communicated with Baghdad that Iraq bears full responsibility for the wellbeing and immediate return' of the captured air force officers.
Sunday, a Mojahedin Khalq spokesman denied the group attacked a border village inside Iran, but said the rebels were training for 'a last and final assault' on Iran in a bid to topple the country's ruling clerics.
The Mojahedin Khalq set up a rebel force called the National Liberation Army of Iran on Iraqi soil after the group's leader Massoud Rajavi moved to Baghdad in 1986.
Monday, Baghdad radio said Iraq would resume its air patrols along the border with Iran to prevent future incursions by Iranian military aircraft.
The two countries signed a cease-fire agreement in 1988 to end their eight-year war and resumed diplomatic relations in 1990, as U.S.-led coalition forces were preparing to push Iraqi troops out of Kuwait.
Iran benefitted from the detente when Iraq flew some of its warplanes into Iranian territory for safekeeping during the 1991 Gulf War. Iran still has the warplanes.
But the detente was short-lived and relations deteriorated again when Iranian clerics supported a Shi'ite uprising near Basra in March 1991 after the Gulf War ended.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has kept the Mojahedin Khalq rebel army on leash since the 1980-88 war ended but regional analysts believe he may unleash it if Iran continues to support Shi'ite rebels in the marshes north of Basra.
An Iraqi rebel organization called the Supreme Assembly of the Iraqi Revolution is based in Tehran and reportedly trains Iraqi rebels on Iranian soil.
Meanwhile, in Bern, Switzerland, an Iranian diplomat protested the attacks on Iranian missions around the world. Iranian charge d'affaires Mahmoud Malekian demanded that Switzerland pay the bill for damage caused by the ransacking of the embassy in the Swiss capital and asked for increased police protection.
He said the United Nations should pay for damage to the Iranian mission in New York.
In Canberra, Australia, three Iranian dissidents appeared in court charged with serious assault and property damage following the storming of the Iranian Embassy Monday in that country. The government announced an inquiry into the incident which hospitalized three embassy staff members, one of whom had his skull fractured.
