Quick hit #4

Again from the Iraqi Press Monitor, this time for July 27:

Minister of Foreign Affairs Hoshiar Zeebari said Iraq would not be used as a base for any attack on Syria or any other neighbouring state. He emphasised the security cooperation between Iraq and those states aimed at stopping terrorism in Iraq. Al-Jazeera television said Zeebari has hinted at the possibility of closing it Baghdad bureau. He has criticised the biased behaviour of al-Jazeera and other channels.

The report was from al-Mada, the daily paper of the Al-Mada institution for Media, Culture, and Arts. Apparently the minister (or someone else) realized how it sounded when interim Defense Minster Hazem Shalam al-Khuzaei suggested a week earlier that Iraq was "capable of transferring terrorism" to countries - specifically Iran - that it felt was interfering in Iraq.