Ahmadinejad taunts US during historic visit to Iraqi capital

Source: AFP, 03-03-2008
BAGHDAD: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday as he began a two-day visit to Iraq that his trip opened a new page in relations between the two former foes that fought a vicious war in the 1980s. The fiery Muslim-Shiite leader also used his historic trip to fire a fresh salvo at President George W. Bush by saying the "Iraqi nation does not want the US."
The first visit by an Iranian president to Iraq aims to boost relations between the two Muslim countries, which lost an estimated 1 million people in their 1980-1988 conflict during the iron-fisted regime of Saddam Hussein.
It comes at a time when the US military is occupying Iraq and the main powerbroker, Washington, is keen to curb the influence of Muslim-Shiite Iran on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Muslim-Shiite-dominated government.
"This is a new page in the history of the relations between the two countries," Ahmadinejad told a joint news conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
"We have the same understanding of things and the two parties are determined to strengthen their political, economic and cultural cooperation," he said.
Ahmadinejad acknowledged that Iraqis were going through "tough" times - "but as we know, the Iraqi people will overcome the situation and the Iraq of tomorrow will be a powerful, developed and unique Iraq."
After seeing Talabani, he drove to Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone to meet Maliki in his office just 2 kilometers from the US Embassy.
Maliki said the visit of Ahmadinejad was a "positive" signal to the other Arab countries.
"There was a high level of trust and I frankly say that the recent Iranian position toward Iraq is extremely helpful," Maliki said a joint news conference with Ahmadinejad.
"The visit will encourage and motivate neighboring countries to visit Iraq," he added.
Ahmadinejad used the platform with Maliki to lash out at Bush's accusation that Tehran was supporting militants in their attacks on US troops in Iraq.
"Bush cannot solve US problems in the region by accusing others. Gone is the era of accusations. The Iraqi nation does not want the US," Ahmadinejad said through a translator as he spoke in Farsi.
On the eve of Ahmadinejad's visit, Bush accused him of "exporting terror" to Iraq.
Speaking to reporters at his Texas ranch, the US president called on Iran to "quit sending in sophisticated equipment that's killing our citizens."
Washington accuses Iran of supplying weapons to anti-US insurgents and training them, charges denied by Tehran.
On Sunday, Ahmadinejad headed a large delegation, including Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
The Iranian officials were also received by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and National Security Adviser Muwaffaq al-Rubaie.
Ahmadinejad was welcomed by Talabani with the traditional pomp and ceremony of a red-carpet greeting and honor guard as a military band played their national anthems.
Outside the Talabani compound, US troops who normally man key intersections near the residence were nowhere to be seen. Kurdish peshmerga fighters from the Iraqi presidential guard provided security instead.