2023-04-29 21:44:52
Iranian leaders have denounced the presence of the United States in the Middle East, which they say compromises the security of the region, during meetings on Saturday with the president of neighboring Iraq who is visiting Tehran for wide-ranging talks. Sworn enemies for decades, Washington and Tehran have been vying for influence in Iraq since the 2003 invasion of the United States that overthrew dictator Saddam Hussein.
“We do not consider the presence of foreign forces and foreigners in the region to be useful,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said at a joint press conference in Tehran with his Iraqi counterpart, Abdel Latif Rashid. “The presence of the United States disturbs the security of the region”, lambasted the Iranian president. “Our relations with Iraq are based on common interests” while “the Americans think of their interests and not those of the countries of the region”, he added.
“Americans are not friends with anyone and are not even loyal to their European friends,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said during his meeting with the Iraqi president, according to the Supreme Leader’s website. “Even the presence of a single American in Iraq is too much. »
Peaceful relationships
Although Iraq and Iran fought an eight-year war in the 1980s, relations between the two predominantly Shiite neighbors calmed down considerably after the fall of Saddam Hussein and his Sunni-dominated regime.
Iraq has become a key economic pillar for the Islamic Republic hit by Western sanctions, while Tehran supplies Baghdad with gas and electricity as well as everyday consumer goods.
“The relations between Iran and Iraq will continue in the field of hydraulic and electric infrastructures”, declared the Iranian president. A “security agreement has been established between the two countries”, the security of Iraq and its borders being “very important to us”, he added.
Both countries helped defeat the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq, and the United States still has 2,500 troops in the country. Some 900 US troops also remain in Syria, most in the Kurdish-administered northeast, as part of a US-led coalition fighting remnants of IS. And the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain,
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