BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Interior Ministry blamed Iranian authorities on Monday for allowing tens of thousands of people to storm a border crossing and enter the country without visas, in a rare public confrontation between the two neighbors.
The ministry said in a statement that the Iranians, traveling on foot toward the city of Karbala to take part in the annual Arbaeen ritual, overwhelmed security forces on Sunday, pulling down fences and injuring border guards.
It accused them of deliberately rushing the border crossing in order to pressure security forces to allow them to enter illegally, and it said the border guards had refrained from exercising their right to use force against them.
“We hold the Iranian side responsible because they did not fulfill their duties and obligations” to prevent those without visas from approaching the crossing, the ministry said.
Iraq’s government is heavily backed by Iran, which also provides training, arms and money to Iraq’s powerful Shiite militias.
Many leading Shiite politicians in Iraq including former prime minister Nouri Al-Maliki developed close ties with Iran while living in exile there during the rule of Saddam Hussein.
Video posted online on Monday appeared to show hundreds of Iranians dressed from head to toe in black forcing open a large gate and running through the checkpoint. Few security forces appeared to be present.
One local official said the number of Iranians who entered Iraq illegally at the Zurbatiya crossing had exceeded half a million.
Kut governor Malik Khalaf called the incident “an infringement of Iraqi sovereignty.”
Hundreds of Iranians each day purchase $30 entry visas to visit southern Iraq. The Iranians this week are partaking in Arbaeen, the end of a 40-day mourning period.
