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Khamenei calls on US to quit Iraq
IRAN'S supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called on the United States today to leave Iraq, saying any eventual talks with Washington would not touch on other issues.

"Our clear viewpoint about Iraq is that the US government should leave this country and stop provoking the tribes and creating insecurity in Iraq so that the Iraqi people govern their own country," he was quoted on television as saying.
"We will not talk with the Americans about any other of the disputed issues between Iran and the US," he said, addressing pilgrims at a shrine in the northeastern city of Mashhad.

Last Thursday, the head of the Supreme National Security Council said Iran was ready to negotiate with the "Great Satan" to help stabilise neighbouring Iraq.

"We agree to negotiate with the Americans," Ali Larijani said, who is also Iran's nuclear chief. "Iran accepts the demand of (Iraqi Shiite leader Abdel Aziz) Hakim to resolve the Iraqi problems and issues with the goal of creating an independent (Iraqi) government."

Mr Hakim, leader of one of Iraq's main Shiite parties, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, had called a day earlier for a dialogue between longtime foes Iran and America.


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In reaction, Ayatollah Khamenei, who is considered close to Mr Larijani, said today that "if the involved Iranian official can make the Americans understand Iran's point of view about Iraq, these talks were okay".
"But if it means opening a scene for the cunning Americans to continue their bullying, the negotiations with the Americans on Iraq will be forbidden."

Ayatollah Khamenei also vowed to resist American efforts to punish Iran for its nuclear program at the UN Security Council.

If things go against Iran's interests, "we will resist", Ayatollah Khamenei said.

"Haven't you (America) already sanctioned us. Haven't the Iranian people suffered under your sanctions, your bullying power. All the progress we have achieved so far was exactly under the same sanctions situation."

The White House said on Saturday that the Islamic republic's offer to hold talks on Iraq was probably just a ploy to "divert pressure" Tehran has drawn over its nuclear program.

Iran waited months to agree to a US proposal to take up the issue, and did so only after Tehran's atomic program was referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions, said US national security adviser Stephen Hadley.

The United States accuses Iran of seeking to obtain nuclear weapons, while Tehran insists its program is only for peaceful purposes, mainly to fuel its power plants.

Washington announced in November 2005, to little publicity, that it was ready to have direct talks with Tehran about Iraq, seeking to discuss charges that Iranian weapons have been finding their way to Shiite fighters in Iraq.


Posted by: Captain America 2006-03-21
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=146167