Monday, March 02, 2009

The International Herald Tribune, Tehran, February 28, 2009 – Iran’s supreme leader told the visiting Iraqi president Saturday that the U.S. should withdraw from Iraq more quickly than planned because any delay is harmful to the country.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s comments came a day after President Barack Obama said the U.S. will pull all combat troops out of Iraq by August 2010 and all remaining soldiers by the end of the following year.
“Military occupiers have to leave Iraq as soon as possible because any single day delay in their withdrawal is harmful to the Iraqi nation,” Iranian state television quoted Khamenei as saying to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
Iran, which views the American presence in Iraq as a threat to its own security and regional influence, has described the U.S. military presence as the main cause of Iraq’s problems and has repeatedly called for immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.
The U.S. has blamed Iran for fomenting violence in Iraq by supporting Shiite militias in the country – a charge Tehran denies.
Although a U.S.-Iraq security pact mandates that all American troops must leave Iraq by the end of 2011, Iran has expressed concern Washington could use the agreement to establish permanent bases in the country. American officials have denied such plans, but Khamenei said Saturday the U.S. was planning a “long stay” in Iraq.
“Occupiers are making preparations for a continuing and long stay in Iraq,” said Khamenei. “This is a big danger.”
Iran and Iraq fought an eight-year war in the 1980s, but relations between the two majority Shiite countries improved in 2003 when U.S.-led forces toppled the Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.
During the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam established a camp in Iraq for an Iranian OPPOSITION group to launch raids into Iran.
The future of Camp Ashraf and its occupants, the People’s Mujahedeen – known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq – has been a sensitive issue between the two countries since Saddam was overthrown.
American troops removed the group’s weapons in 2003 and confined the fighters to their camp. Iraq assumed responsibility for the base north of Baghdad under the U.S.-Iraq security deal that started Jan. 1.
Iraq has said it plans to close the camp, a decision Khamenei urged the Iraqi government Saturday to implement.
“This decision must be carried out,” said Khamenei. “We are waiting to see it materialize.”
Iraq has said the 3,500 members of the group in the camp have two months to decide whether they want to go back to Iran or to a third country.