Iran backs Maliki, says US troops must leave Iraq
Daily Star - August 10, 2007Iran on Thursday gave full backing to visiting Iraqi Premier Nuri al-Maliki and said US troops must leave his country immediately, in talks that sparked unease in Washington.
The embattled Shiite premier stressed the growing strength of bilateral ties during his two-day visit to Iran, despite a renewed warning from President George W. Bush over Tehran's alleged meddling in Iraq.
Leaving behind a political crisis at home, Maliki received a warm welcome from Iran's top leaders, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He was later due to meet supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Maliki was also quoted by Iranian state media as praising Iran's "constructive" role in "fighting terrorism" in Iraq - a statement that Bush moved swiftly to publicly 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, on the eve of his August vacation.
"My message to him is, when we catch you playing a nonconstructive role, there will be a price to pay," Bush said in remarks which could have been taken as a criticism of Maliki.
US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe later said the "price to pay" remark mad by Bush had been directed at Iran and not the prime minister.
Ahmadinejad earlier on Thursday told the Iraqi prime minister that "Iran and Iraq both have heavy responsibilities to bring about peace and security in the region. The situation in the region today, including Iraq, is very sensitive. Tehran considers the future of the region to be dependent on the victory in Iraq," he said.
Iranian Vice President Parviz Davoudi also warned that security in Iraq depended on an immediate withdrawal of US forces, a move Iraqi officials have said would be premature.
"It is our belief that the exit of the occupying forces would provide security and stability in Iraq," Davoudi said. "Bringing about security and calm in Iraq is dependent on two factors- the exit of the occupiers and their non-interference in Iraq and also the power of the government of Mr. Maliki," he added.
State media said Maliki, on his second official visit to Iran, left Tehran to visit the shrine of the Imam Reza in Iran's holy second city of Mashhad, where he would also meet Khamenei.
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.
In a highly symbolic move, Maliki also met the families of seven 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.
The White House has expressed displeasure on Thursday over Iran's behavior in post-Saddam Iraq.
Bush said that 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 behavior.
Iran's envoy to a two-day conference on Iraq security in the Syrian capital denied on Thursday accusations by the United States that Tehran is fueling Iraq's violence and is behind many of the attacks on American troops there.
"There is no evidence on this subject," said Mohammad Firouznia, head of the Iranian delegation at the gathering in Damascus. "We have held talks with the Americans in Baghdad aimed at helping the Iraqi government and people ... We are serious about this issue."
Firouznia comments followed a recent announcement by Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno, the US second-in-command in Iraq, in which Odierno said that Iranian-armed Shiite militiamen were behind 73 percent of the attacks that killed and wounded US troops in Baghdad in July, nearly double the figure six months earlier.
Iraq's neighbors including US foes Syria and Iran agreed to cooperate with Baghdad in a bid to restore stability to Iraq on the final day of talks in the Syrian capital.
"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 read by the Iraqi delegate after a two-day meeting of the Iraqi Neighbours Border Security Working Group."
Saudi Arabia refused to attend the conference.
In New York, the UN Security Council delayed on Thursday its vote on a resolution to expand the United Nations role in Iraq by 24 hours to give the Iraqi government time to review it, diplomats said.
The United States and the United Kingdom, the draft's co-sponsors, wanted to make sure that recent minor changes to the text were backed by the Iraqi government.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters that the vote would occur Friday.
"We wanted to make sure the final draft has the approval and comfort of the Iraqi government," Khalilzad said, adding that he had spoken with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and that "they are satisfied" with the text.
The resolution would extend the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), which expires Friday, by one year. It also paves the way for the UN special envoy in Iraq to "as circumstances permit" to advise, support and assist the Iraqi government in political, economic, electoral, legal, constitutional, refugee and human rights matters. - Agencies
