Rooyesh

US President George W. Bush sternly warned Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki Thursday against cozying up to Iran, amid what Washington sees as unsettling signs of warming Baghdad-Tehran relations. Bush, holding a pre-vacation press conference, said he was not surprised at pictures showing cordial meetings between Maliki and top Iranian leaders in Tehran but that he hoped the prime minister was delivering a tough message. “You don’t want the picture to be kind of, you know, duking it out,” when on a diplomatic mission he said, putting up his fists like a boxer. But “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 don’t believe they are constructive,” said Bush, who called Iran “a very troubling nation.”

The US president’s comments came days after he disagreed sharply with Afghan President Hamid Karzai about Iran’s influence after Karzai called Tehran a positive force in combating extremist forces in his country.

And they came as top US officials worried about the pace of political reconciliation in Iraq, amid misgivings in Washington about whether Maliki, a Shiite, truly wanted or was able to build bridges to minority Sunnis.

Iran, which the United States blames for fomenting much of the bloodshed in Iraq, earlier gave visiting Maliki its full support for restoring security but told him a pullout of US forces was the only way to end the violence.

According to the state-run IRNA news agency, Maliki thanked Iran for its “positive and constructive” work in “providing security and fighting terrorism in Iraq.”

Bush expressed skepticism and warned Iran “there will be a price to pay” if its agents are caught undermining US-led efforts in Iraq.

“There will be consequences” for any Iranians shipping weapons, including sophisticated roadside bombs, inside Iraq, said the US president, who branded Tehran “a destabilizing influence” in the Middle East.

Bush cited Iran’s support for Lebanon’s Shiite militant group Hezbollah; Tehran’s suspect nuclear program; and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s anti-Israel warnings, which he said Washington “cannot live with.”

“My message to the Iranian people is, ‘You can do better than this current government. You don’t have to be isolated. You don’t have to be in a position where you can’t realize your full economic potential,’” Bush said.

Asked whether he was confident that, in past talks, Maliki shared his view about Iran, the US president replied: “Does he understand with some extremist groups there’s connections with Iran? And he does. And I’m confident.”

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 Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated regime.

In a highly symbolic move, Maliki 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.

Bush, who was bound for his family’s oceanside compound in the northeastern state of Maine, also acknowledged difficulties in forging political reconciliation in Iraq — one of the key goals of the US-led crackdown.

“There is a lot of work left to be done, don’t get me wrong,” he said, noting the failure of Iraqi lawmakers to pass key legislation aimed at soothing disputes that fuel sectarian violence.

But “if one were to look hard, they could find indications that — more than indications, facts that show the government is learning how to function,” said the president.

Sourse: AFP

Iran’s leaders on Thursday told visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that US troops must leave his country, in talks that reinforced growing bilateral ties and sparked unease in Washington. Following a renewed warning from President George W. Bush over Tehran’s alleged meddling in Iraq, Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei told Maliki the presence of US troops was the biggest obstacle to restoring security. Leaving behind a political crisis at home, the Shiite premier received a warm welcome from Iran’s top leaders, including Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and national security chief Ali Larijani.

Maliki was also quoted by Iranian state media as praising Iran’s “constructive” role in “fighting terrorism” in Iraq — a statement Bush moved swiftly to contradict.

Bush, holding a pre-vacation press conference, said he was not surprised at pictures showing cordial meetings between Maliki and top Iranian leaders in Tehran but that he hoped the prime minister was delivering a tough message.

“You don’t want the picture to be kind of, you know, duking it out,” when on a diplomatic mission he said, putting up his fists like a boxer.

“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 said.

Bush cited Iran’s support for Lebanon’s Shiite militant group Hezbollah; Tehran’s suspect nuclear program; and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s anti-Israel warnings, which he said Washington “cannot live with.”

“My message to the Iranian people is, ‘You can do better than this current government. You don’t have to be isolated. You don’t have to be in a position where you can’t realize your full economic potential,’” Bush said.

Asked whether he was confident that, in past talks, Maliki shared his view about Iran, the US president replied: “Does he understand with some extremist groups there’s connections with Iran? And he does. And I’m confident.”

However, Khamenei said in his meeting with Maliki in the Shiite holy city of Mashhad that it was the presence of the US-led forces that was the “biggest misfortune” shadowing Iraq.

“The occupiers claim that if they exit now, Iraq will be destroyed. Whereas if the occupiers leave, all the Iraqi officials will move with full force to solve the people’s problems,” state television quoted Khamenei as saying.

Several Iraqi officials have warned against a hasty US pullout on the grounds that Iraq’s own security forces are not ready to take over fully.

“The US are trying to put in power a lackey government” in Iraq, Khamenei added. “But the US policy will definitely fail and the victors in this arena will be the Iraqi people.”

Maliki was quoted as telling Khamenei: “Iraq should regain its independence and dignity. The Iraqi government is trying to get Iraq back to normal.”

Ahmadinejad earlier told the Iraqi prime minister: “Iran and Iraq both have heavy responsibilities to bring about peace and security in the region.”

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.

Iran and Saddam’s Iraq waged a war between 1980 and 1988 in which around one million people died.

Maliki has been a vocal supporter of two rounds of discussions between the two countries’ envoys to Iraq, but these have been marked by acrimonious disagreements over who was to blame for the bloodshed.

Like many other Iraqi Shiite leaders, Maliki lived in Iran during the 1980s, when Baghdad was at war with Tehran, to escape persecution of his Dawa party by Saddam’s regime.

In a highly symbolic move, Maliki also met the families of 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.

In a separate meeting in Damascus, Iraq’s neighbours including US foes Syria and Iran agreed to cooperate with Baghdad in a bid to restore stability to Iraq.

“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 after a two-day meeting of the Iraqi Neighbours Border Security Working Group.

Sourse: AFP

President Bush today called on the Iranian people to reject their hard-line government, saying they “can do better” and need not be isolated by a leadership that destabilizes its neighbors and pursues a suspected nuclear weapons program. In a White House news conference before leaving for vacation, Bush also had cautionary words for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

He said Maliki, who is visiting Tehran, should realize that Iran is playing a “very troubling” role and that he would need to “have a heart to heart” talk with the Iraqi leader if he believed the Iranians were being constructive. Furthermore, President George W. Bush warned Iran that it will face unspecified “consequences” if it continues to supply powerful weapons to sectarian militias in Iraq. And for the second time in four days, the U.S. leader faced questions from reporters about an ally that appears to be getting along better with Iran than he might prefer. On Monday, Bush was asked about Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s comment on CNN that Iran has been a peaceful neighbor and “a helper” in the fight against narcotics trafficking. Bush replied that he would be “cautious” about that statement. Today a reporter noted that al-Maliki is currently in Iran in hopes of enlisting Tehran’s help in stabilizing Iraq. The reporter noted that al-Maliki thanked Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his “positive and constructive stance” as neighbor. Bush responded that the public view of such meetings are always cordial, and that he hoped in private, al-Maliki told Ahmadinejad to stop being a “destabilizing influence” in the region, and stop supplying arms to Iraqi militias. Bush added that if al-Maliki truly believes Iran is being constructive, he’ll make a point of discussing it with him. “If the signal is that Iran is constructive, I will have to have a heart-to-heart [intimate and sincere talk] with my friend, the [Iraqi] prime minister, because I don’t believe they are constructive,” Bush said. “I don’t think he, in his heart of hearts, believes they are constructive, either. Now, maybe he is hopeful and trying to get them to be constructive by laying out a positive picture.” Bush said al-Maliki’s message to Ahmadinejad should be the same as his own message to Iran: Stop sending weapons to Iraq or “there will be consequences.” He didn’t say what those consequences might be.

Source: The Washington Post and Radio Farda