Ahmadinejad Condemns 'Killings,' 'Massacre' in Ally Syria
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad condemned the "killings and massacre" in key ally Syria, which has carried out a bloody crackdown on seven months of protests, in an interview with CNN.
"We condemn killings and massacre in Syria, whether it is security forces being killed or people and the opposition," Ahmadinejad said, according to excerpts of the interview reported in Farsi by the website of Iran's state broadcaster on Saturday.
"We have a clear formula for Syria and that it is for all sides to sit together and reach an understanding... therefore these killings cannot solve any problems and in the long term it will lead to a deadlock," he added.
Addressing the developments in Iraq, Ahmadinejad said he expects "a change to occur" in Tehran-Baghdad ties after U.S. military forces pull out from the country.
"I think a change will occur. We have special relations with Iraq," he added.
He called the U.S. withdrawal "a good thing."
The Iranian president's comments were published after his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama said Friday that all U.S. troops would leave Iraq by the end of this year.
U.S. officials have long accused Iran of arming and supporting Shiite militias in Iraq against U.S. troops.
In the published excerpts, Ahmadinejad did not expand on what he meant by "change" in Iraq ties.
But he and other Iranian officials have repeatedly called for U.S. troops to leave Iraq ever since the 2003 invasion which overthrew Saddam Hussein
"I think this is a good thing and should have been carried out a long time ago. If it were done seven or eight years ago, there would have been fewer Iraqi and American forces killed," Ahmadinejad said.
Asked about the possibility of Iran and Iraq cooperating militarily in the future, Ahmadinejad said: "The Iraqi government is independent. It is they who have to decide how to train their military forces. We have to wait for the Iraqi government's decision."
He stressed that Tehran had established "special relations with Iraq" since the overthrow of Saddam, who had launched a devastating but ultimately unsuccessful 1980-1988 war against Iran.
Obama's announcement that the 39,000 U.S. soldiers still stationed in Iraq will leave by the end of 2011 has been criticized by the Republican opposition, which fears the withdrawal will enable Iran to expand its regional clout.
Source: Agence France Presse
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