Iran welcomes US moves to speed up Iraq pullout


by Staff Writers
Baghdad (AFP) Jan 24, 2009

Iran welcomes moves by the new US President Barack Obama to pull American troops out of Iraq, its ambassador in Baghdad told AFP in an interview on Saturday.

Obama has upped the tempo of a planned drawdown from Iraq since his inauguration on Tuesday, instructing top US commanders to prepare a "responsible" exit strategy, although other officials have been more cautious.

"We definitely welcome a US troop pullout from Iraq. This is what the Iraqi people and the government wants," Hasan Kazemi Qomi told AFP.

During his election campaign, Obama promised to bring all US troops home from Iraq within 16 months of taking office, but also said he would listen to his generals, and has since narrowed the reduction pledge to combat units.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has since said he has been assured by Washington that there will be no rapid US withdrawal.

Kazemi Qomi, whose country has been accused repeatedly by the US of fomenting sectarian strife in Iraq to destabilise its fragile security, said it was up to Iraq's people to decide if they wanted American troops on their soil.

Under an agreement signed between Washington and Baghdad in November the US military is due to withdraw combat soldiers from Iraq by the end of 2011.

"What is mentioned in the pact is for the American troops to get out and this certainly makes the Iraqi people happy," Kazemi Qomi said.

"It is up to the Iraqi people to judge what the Americans are doing in their country and it is natural to see in the referendum what kind of judgement the Iraqi people will have," he added, referring to a decision taken by the Iraqi parliament to hold a referendum this summer on the US troop presence.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki against the security pact with Washington during a visit to Tehran earlier this month.

Kazemi Qomi on Saturday reiterated Iran's opposition to any continued US troop presence.

"As far as we are concerned the US are still on the Iraqi-Iranian border but the responsibility of the border is within each nation's sovereign rights," he said.

"It should be returned fully to the Iraqis which so far has not occurred."

Iran, which was irked by the November agreement, has accused its archfoe Washington of training and financing rebel groups to carry out attacks on its soil.

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iran_welcomes_US_moves_to_speed_up_Iraq_pullout_999.html