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Iran Will Help US Leave Iraq

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Saturday that his country would be willing to help its enemy, the US, leave Iraq, saying: "Iran is ready to help the administration to withdraw its troops from Iraq." Mottaki said that half of the violent incidents in Iraq are due to American activity and that there absence will greatly improve the regional security. Mottaki, who was speaking at an institute of strategic studies in Bahrain, said that if the United States were to decide to resolve the situation, everyone would help support such an important decision.

When Mottaki was asked how his country would help a US withdrawal from Iraq, he replied that once the United States announces it is ready to leave, they would explain, and that Iran is able to pacify the situation in Iraq in several ways. An anonymous American senior military official replied that: "The biggest help Iran can make is to stop what they`re doing in Iraq right now." When asked about the Baker-Hamilton Report`s call for direct talks with Iran, Mottaki responded that Iran would hold direct talks with the United States as long as the United States announces explicitly its intentions to leave Iraq.

The United States blames Iran and Syria of inciting violence in Iraq since the United States invaded and toppled Saddam Hussein`s regime in March of 2003. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hypothesized that Iran would demand payback for any help on Iraq, Payback that could be related to the Iranian nuclear program. A nuclear program Iran claims to be peaceful but many Western nations feel to be a threat on their way of life.