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TEHRAN, Aug 19: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday denied
fresh US allegations that the Islamic republic was linked to bombings in Iraq,
and instead pointed the finger at US occupying forces.
“We support the government of Iraq. We are very disturbed by the lack
of security in Iraq, especially the daily killings of the Iraqi people,”
Khamenei said in a sermon at Tehran University.
“American machine-guns are criminal, but those elements who plant bombs
are also criminals,” he added.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday that US forces had found
Iranian weapons inside Iraq on more than one occasion over the past couple of
months, accusing Tehran of seeking to replicate its own Islamic regime in Iraq
by backing insurgents.
But Khamenei said the US was behind the regular bombings, arguing that Washington
needed a “pretext” to stay put in Iraq.
“For us, the prime suspect in these incidents is America, because terrorism
in Iraq functions under the eyes of the US. Thousands of American forces are
spread across Iraq and if they wanted to eradicate insecurity they could have,”
he said. “There are some signs which point to the spy services of the
US and Zionist regime,” he said.
