What is Iran’s take on the new long-term security agreement being negotiated between Washington and Baghdad?
Teheran’s leadership charges that beyond insuring that Iraq becomes a legal launching pad for American attacks on neighboring countries and depriving of its sovereignty, the deal is also part of President Bush’s scheme to persuade a war-weary America that Iraqis want the U.S. to stay, thereby allowing him to ‘steal’ another election – but this time for John McCain. Referring to the White House push for the security deal, Ardeshir Ommani writes for Iran’s tightly-controlled, state-run Tehran Times:
“The intent of the Bush Administration is to blur the differences between the Democratic and Republican candidates on the question of an immediate troop withdrawal. Should the White House impose such an enslaving order on the people of Iraq, the chances for Senator McCain improve, while the lot of Senator Barack Obama plummets. It seems tricky George still has a card up his sleeve for stealing another election. … If the current administration pulls this off, they intend to proclaim to the American people that Iraqis have agreed to a continuation of the occupation of their country and that the,y “want us to stay and protect them.”
By Ardeshir Ommani
June 21, 2008
Islamic Republic of Iran – The Tehran Times – Original Article (English)
Earlier this month, that part of humanity that respects its own freedom and dignity has witnessed the impending conclusion of a unilateral [long-term] “security” agreement between the Iraqi government and the sole author of this forced concession, the United States.
The one-sided accord is part and parcel of colonial rule and provides a pseudo-legal foundation for the extension of America’s violent occupation of that country. By means of this so-called treaty, which provides for no time or space limitations, George W. Bush’s Washington intends to disguise his ugly and brutal treatment of the Iraqi people with a veneer of legality, so that the presence of the U.S. military machine in Iraq and the Persian Gulf region won’t be construed as an indefinite continuation of the U.S. military occupation in the eyes of the least-informed Americans and some European U.N. Security Council members. Furthermore, the agreement would likely be exploited as a basis for using Iraqi territory as a launching pad for additional wars against countries in the region.
In talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Tehran in early June, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei made his rejection of this proposed “security pact” clear by stating that “occupiers who interfere in Iraqi affairs with their military and security might” are the chief cause of Iraq’s problems and are the “… main obstacle in the way of the Iraqi national progress and prosperity.”
The Iranian people must not tolerate the continued aggression of U.S. forces in Iraq.
Some years ago, when an early draft of this pact was circulated, Iraqi nationalist forces and religious leaders were led to believe that signing the deal would lead – sooner or later – with the withdrawal of U.S. troops and Iraqi independence. Today, however, that presumption has been turned on its head. It has now become clear to all that America’s objective is to tighten the noose and permanently hold the position as global executioner. Some Iraqi officials are even trying to convince the Iraqi and Arab masses that the deal invalidates paragraph seven of the U.N. resolution on Iraq, which makes the United States the guarantor of Iraqi security.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing foreign press coverage of the U.S. election and U.S. tensions with Iran.
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