'Bush will be tried just like Saddam'
US President George W. Bush will one day be tried in court just like deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein for his involvement in the Iraq tragedy, said Iran's supreme leader Friday. Speaking to thousands of worshippers during the first Friday prayer of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Bush will be called to account for the US-led invasion of Iraq.
"A day will come that the current US president and officials will be tried in an international supreme court for the catastrophes they caused in Iraq," he said. "Americans will have to answer for why they don't end occupation of Iraq and why waves of terrorism and insurgency have overwhelmed the country. It will not be like this forever and some day they will be stopped as happened to Hitler, Saddam and certain other European leaders."
Khamenei mocked the US, describing the recent congressional testimony of the top US officials in Iraq as a sign of weakness and the failure of American policy in the war torn country. "More than four years have past since the occupation of Iraq and today everyone knows that American has failed and is frantically looking for a way out," he said.
In their testimony Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker raised allegations of Iranian meddling in Iraq by financial and military supporting militias and insurgent groups, warning that the US was already embroiled in a proxy war with the Islamic republic.
Despite UN sanctions and efforts to isolate Iran internationally, the country is flourishing, maintained Khamenei. "Today we are in a better political position compared to four to five years ago," he said. "We have moved forward economically and the spiritual preparedness and happiness of our nation has improved. A nation like ours, without an atomic bomb and not as wealthy as these other powerful governments, has foiled a whole series of their conspiracies and forced them to give up and withdraw."
The US accuses Iran of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons and has called for further international sanctions against the country. Iran and the US have not had diplomatic relations since Washington cut its ties with Tehran after Iranian students stormed the US embassy there in 1979.
Posted by: Fred 2007-09-15 |