Khameini calls Washington to withdraw from Iraq

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, asked the USA to withdraw its forces from Iraq, ruling out that talks with the USA over Iraq would deal with any other points of differences between the Americans and the Iranians.

In a speech he delivered in the Iranian city of Mashhad, Khamenei said "our very clear view points concerning Iraq is that the American government has to withdraw from this country and to stop spreading atmospheres of instability so as the Iraqi people to govern their country."

Commenting on the talks which his country intend to hold with Iran over Iraq, the US President George W. Bush said that Washington seeks out of these talks to explain to Tehran that the attempts to expand the scale of sectarian violence in Iraq are not acceptable.

In a press conference in the White House on Tuesday, the US president explained that these talks "were a means before us to explain to them the right and the wrong in their activities inside Iraq." He indicated that Iran should negotiate with Iraq directly over any relations between the two neighboring countries.

Iran has repeatedly denied accusations of flaring up sectarian violence in Iraq. Iraqi political sides expected that the American ambassador in Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad to meet with Iranian officials during the current week.

Each of the American President George W. Bush and his defense secretary renewed defending the decision for launching the war on Iraq on the occasion of the third anniversary of the invasion. Though Bush admitted that the American forces in Iraq are facing violent fighting, he simultaneously stressed that these forces are making progress, noting the increased effectiveness of the Iraqi security forces.