World
  |
|
US troops must go, Iran tells Iraqi PM
Fars News/Reuters
Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki (L) and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wave to journalists as they attend an official meeting in Tehran August 8, 2007.By Stuart Williams
AFP
TEHRAN
Petroleumworld.com 08 09 07
Iran's leaders on Thursday told visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that US troops must leave his country, in talks that reinforced growing bilateral ties and sparked unease in Washington.
Following a renewed warning from President George W. Bush over Tehran's alleged meddling in Iraq, Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei told Maliki the presence of US troops was the biggest obstacle to restoring security.
Leaving behind a political crisis at home, the Shiite premier received a warm welcome from Iran's top leaders, including Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and national security chief Ali Larijani.
Maliki was also quoted by Iranian state media as praising Iran's "constructive" role in "fighting terrorism" in Iraq -- a statement Bush moved swiftly to contradict.
" If the signal is that Iran is constructive, I will have to have a heart to heart with my friend the prime minister because I do not believe they are," Bush told a White House news conference.
However, Khamenei said in his meeting with Maliki in the Shiite holy city of Mashhad that it was the presence of the US-led forces that was the "biggest misfortune" shadowing Iraq.
" The occupiers claim that if they exit now, Iraq will be destroyed. Whereas if the occupiers leave, all the Iraqi officials will move with full force to solve the people's problems," state television quoted Khamenei as saying.Several Iraqi officials have warned against a hasty US pullout on the grounds that Iraq's own security forces are not ready to take over fully.
" The US are trying to put in power a lackey government" in Iraq, Khamenei added.
" The current government of Iraq is a popularly elected government and we fully support it."
Maliki was quoted as telling Khamenei: "Iraq should regain its independence and dignity. The Iraqi government is trying to get Iraq back to normal."
Ahmadinejad earlier told the Iraqi prime minister: "Iran and Iraq both have heavy responsibilities to bring about peace and security in the region."
Maliki's talks appeared to confirm the increasingly warm relations that have emerged between majority Shiite Iraq and overwhelmingly Shiite Iran following the fall of the Sunni-dominated regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Iran and Saddam's Iraq waged a war between 1980 and 1988 in which around one million people died.
However the White House expressed displeasure on Thursday over Iran's behaviour in post-Saddam Iraq.
Bush said US officials have warned Iran in talks in Baghdad to stop shipping sophisticated roadside bombs into Iraq or face the "consequences." Iran vehemently denies any such behaviour.
The aim of the talks was "to send the message that there will be consequences for people transporting, delivering, EFPs -- highly sophisticated IEDS -- to kill Americans in Iraq," Bush said.
Maliki has been a vocal supporter of two rounds of discussions between the two countries' envoys to Iraq, but these have been marked by acrimonious disagreements over who was to blame for the bloodshed.
Like many other Iraqi Shiite leaders, Maliki lived in Iran during the 1980s, when Baghdad was at war with Tehran, to escape persecution of his Dawa party by Saddam's regime.
In a highly symbolic move, Maliki also met the families of Iranian officials arrested in Iraq by US forces on accusations of being members of an elite Revolutionary Guards force on a mission to stir trouble.
Iran insists the men were diplomats and is livid that the United States has shown no sign of releasing them.
" The Iraqi government will do all it can to release these people," Maliki said, expressing optimism that the officials would be freed and condemning their arrest, state broadcasting said.
In a separate meeting in Damascus, Iraq's neighbours including US foes Syria and Iran agreed to cooperate with Baghdad in a bid to restore stability to Iraq."The participants expressed a willingness to cooperate with the Iraqi government to bring about security and stability in Iraq and to build the Iraqi army," said a statement after a two-day meeting of the Iraqi Neighbours Border Security Working Group.
AFP 09 1853 GMT 08 07
Copyright© 2007 Xinhua . All rights reserved.
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels