BAGHDAD, 4 March 2008 — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used a historic visit to Baghdad yesterday to tell the United States to get out of Iraq and the region, saying its presence there had brought only destruction and division.
“We believe the powers that came over the seas traveling thousands of kilometers, these powers should leave this region and hand over the affairs to the people and governments in the region,” Ahmadinejad said in translated remarks.
“People have not seen anything from the foreign presence in this region but more destruction and division,” he added. Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called on the United States, Iran’s long-time enemy, to withdraw its more than 150,000 troops in Iraq, saying their presence is to blame for sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis.
Ahmadinejad’s two-day state visit to Iraq, the first by an Iranian leader since the neighbors fought a bitter eight-year war in the 1980s, highlighted the two countries’ deepening ties at a time when US influence in Iraq is seen as waning.
His warm reception by Shiite and Kurdish leaders and the pomp and ceremony that greeted him at the start of his well-publicized trip were in stark contrast to the rushed and secretive visits of US President George W. Bush.
Ahmadinejad yesterday again denied US accusations that Iran is funding, arming and training Shiite militias in Iraq to undermine the Baghdad government.
“US officials talk too much. For us these remarks are not important, because they talk based on false information. But we give them a friendly suggestion: We think accusing others cannot resolve US problems in the region,” he said. He also said Iran wanted a “unified and independent Iraq,” an assertion later challenged by US Embassy spokesman Philip Reeker.
Highlighting the warming ties between the two former arch-foes, Iran and Iraq signed seven agreements on customs, transportation links and improving cooperation in industrial development during Ahmadinejad’s trip.
Ahmadinejad said efforts were also being made to resolve disputes over their border, a major factor in the 1980-88 war, and said both countries were working to determine the fate of soldiers who went missing during the conflict.
