Iraqi president says relationship with neighbors good

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani yesterday criticized the attempts by some segments of mass media to magnify rifts between Iraq and its neighbors such as Iran and Syria and underlined that his relationship with Iran is "very good."

The Iraqi Presidential Office in a statement announced that news media had not correctly quoted the remarks made by President Talabani last week on relations with Iran.

During the meeting with the country's cultural figures, the Iraqi president said despite the presence of multinational forces in Iraq, certain Arab groups believed that Iraq's arch enemy is Iran and not the United States.

The statement underlined that this was the views of some Sunni Arabs but the president himself enjoys a very good relationship with Iran.

The statement added that the Iraqi president considers himself as the friend of Syria but some segments of media were trying to magnify the differences between the two countries.