Iran’s Leader Tells Iraq that Americans Are the Problem

TEHRAN— Iran’s supreme leader told Iraq’s visiting prime minister on Monday that the American forces in Iraq are the biggest obstacle to Iraqi stability.

The message from the Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was the most authoritative public word to date on Iran’s objections to long-term security agreements currently under negotiation between the Bush administration and the government of Iraq’s prime
minister,Nuri Kamal Al Malikii.

The American military has been operating in Iraq under a United Nations mandate that has been renewed annually. The current pact Dec. 31, 2008.

“The most fundamental problem of Iraq is the presence of the foreign forces,” Ayatollah Khamenei told Mr. Maliki, according to excerpts of their meeting reported by the Iranian Students News Agency.

“The Iraqi government, Parliament and all the authorities who have been elected with public vote should take charge,” the ayatollah said.

Iranian officials strongly oppose the American military presence in Iraq, which they consider a major threat on their border. Yet it was the American-led effort that overthrew their hated enemy Saddam Hussien and brought about a coalition government in Baghdad dominated by Shiite political leaders, including Mr. Maliki, with strong ties to Iran.

“When a foreign force gradually increases its interference and domination in all the affairs of Iraq, it becomes the most important obstacle in development and prosperity of the Iraqi people,” the ayatollah said, without directly referring to the security agreements.

The Iranian accounts of the meeting between Ayatollah Khamenei and Mr. Maliki did not give Mr. Maliki’s response. But he had assured Iranian authorities on Sunday that his country would not become “a platform for harming the security of Iran and its neighbors.”

Tensions between Tehran and Washington have escalated under the Bush administration, which has accused the Iranians of working on a nuclear weapons program in secret and of financing and supplying deadly weapons to anti-American militants in Iraq. Iran denies the accusations.

Source : Nytimes

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