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The TRUTH about the Ahmadinejad visit to Iraq...
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| The TRUTH about the Ahmadinejad visit to Iraq...
- Click HERE to go to the original thread with graphics
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| NCMike06 |
Protests, boycotts, (by FREE Iraqi's) and little if any political progress reflect a trip to Iraq that was essentially a complete failure by the butcher of Tehran...
(and you won't see this information in the MSM)
http://www.nypost.com/seven/0308200...acle_100962.htm
Amir Teheri
Quote:
March 8, 2008 -- IT had been billed as a "triumph" for the Islamic Re public and "a slap in the face of the American Great Satan." However, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's two-day state visit to Iraq last weekend showed the limits of Iranian influence in the newly liberated country.
Weeks of hard work by Iranian emissaries and pro-Iran elements in Iraq were supposed to ensure massive crowds thronging the streets of Baghdad and throwing flowers on the path of the visiting Iranian leader. Instead, no more than a handful of Iraqis turned up for the occasion. The numbers were so low that the state-owned TV channels in Iran decided not to use the footage at all.
Instead, much larger crowds gathered to protest Ahmadinejad's visit. In the Adhamiya district of Baghdad, several thousand poured into the streets with cries of "Iranian aggressor, go home!"
The visit's highlight was supposed to be a pilgrimage to Karbala and Najaf, the "holiest" of Shiite cities in Iraq. There, Ahmadinejad was supposed to become the first Iranian government leader since 1976 to pray at the mausoleums of Imam Hussein and Imam Ali.
In the end, however, the tour was canceled amid reports that Shiite pilgrims, including thousands from Iran, were planning to demonstrate against his presence at the "holy" cities.
A more important reason motivated Ahmadinejad to drop his planned visits to Najaf - his failure to arrange an encounter with the leading ayatollahs of the "holy" city, especially Grand Ayatollah Ali-Muhammad Sistani, the leading Shiite clergyman. For a president who claims that he's the standard-bearer of a global Shiite revolution, that was one photo-op to die for.
Initially, Ahmadinejad asked that Sistani visit him at a villa that once housed the Iranian consul-general in Najaf. This is because Ahmadinejad, as Islamic Republic president, mustn't acknowledge the supremacy of any cleric apart from Ali Khamenei, the Iranian "Supreme Guide." Under Iranian protocol, the president goes to the "Supreme Guide other mullahs must go to the president.
But Sistani wasn't prepared to go to Ahmadinejad. That would have acknowledged the superiority of a secular position to a clerical one, something no grand ayatollah would do.
Eventually, a compromise was found: Ahmadinejad was to call on Sistani supposedly because the ayatollah was in poor health. This was to be an exercise in "visiting the sick," highly recommended in Islam.
At the last minute, however, Sistani's entourage insisted that there should be no pictures and that neither side should issue a statement at the end of the planned 20-minute meeting. This would've deprived Ahmadinejad of his photo op and prevented him from claiming Sistani's support for the Iranian policy in Iraq. The only solution was for Ahmadinejad not to go to Najaf at all.
The Iranian thus ended up like a devout Catholic leader who goes to Rome but fails to visit the Vatican or call on the pope.
He had already been obliged to cancel a visit to Samarra, where the "Hidden Imam" disappeared in a well on 941 AD. Ahmadinejad had hoped to visit the ruins of the golden-domed Mausoleum of the Two Imams that was bombed by al Qaeda in 2005 and 2006 and announce a plan to rebuild the mausoleum.
The project is of special importance to Ahmadinejad, who claims to be in direct contact with the "Hidden Imam." (Last year he told his Cabinet that the "Hidden Imam" had accompanied him to the United Nations and filled the General Assembly's hall with a green light during his speech.)
But two days of demonstrations against Ahmadinejad's planned visit by the people of Samarra forced him to strike the city off his itinerary.
Nor did Ahmadinejad's presence in Baghdad go as smoothly as he'd hoped. A good part of the Iraqi political elite, including Cabinet ministers and members of the parliament, boycotted functions held in his honor. Tehran has branded the boycotters as "Saddamites and Sunnis in fact, a good number of Shiite politicians, including the leaders of the Fadila (Virtue) Party, also stayed away.
Protest marches against Ahmadinejad weren't limited to predominantly Sunni Arab cities such as Mosul, Kirkuk and Fallujah. Thousands of people also turned out in Shiite-majority Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, to oppose the visit and condemn the Islamic Republic's intervention in domestic Iraqi affairs.
The visit's political side was equally disappointing for Ahmadinejad. He failed to persuade the Iraqi leaders to stop negotiations with America on long-term arrangements ensuring US commitment to new Iraq for several more years. Nor did he succeed in obtaining cast-iron guarantees that new Iraq won't seek to renegotiate aspects of the 1975 Treaty with Iran. (Iraqi President Jalal Talabani told an interviewer last year that the treaty, signed by Saddam Hussein, doesn't reflect the interests of the Iraqi people.)
Ahmadinejad's visit also failed to produce results on such perennial Irano-Iraqi problems as the fate of thousands from both sides who remain missing in action since the 1980-88 war, and plans for reopening the Shatt al-Arab border estuary to allow a revival of maritime transport in that corner of southwestern Iran.
The Iranian visitor failed on another issue close to the heart of Iran's ruling mullahs: the handover of some 4,000 members of the Mujahedin Khalq (People's Combatants), an armed Marxist-Islamist group who live under US protection in a camp northeast of Baghdad. The Iraqi leaders paid lip service to the idea of getting rid of the "terrorists" but offered no timetable for expelling them, let alone handing them over to Tehran and certain death.
Ahmadinejad had come to Iraq to show it was an Iranian playground. He ended up by showing that Iran's influence in Iraq is widely exaggerated.
To be sure, Tehran exerts influence through a number of Shiite militias it has recruited, trained and financed for years. And some insurgent groups depend on Iran as their main source of weapons, especially sophisticated explosive devices. Iran also remains Iraq's biggest trading partner and the second-biggest investor in the Iraqi economy. Iranian pilgrims account for more than 90 percent of all foreign visitors in Iraq.
Yet the visit highlighted one crucial fact: Few Iraqis wish to see their country dominated by the Khomeinist regime in Tehran.
Iraq proved too hot for Ahmadinejad. He had to get out as fast as he could. |
Ohh well...there goes ANOTHER leftbot talking point down the drain... :burst: |
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| artie84 |
Ahmadinejad lashes out at US on historic Iraq trip
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the US on Sunday of bringing terrorism to the Middle East as he made a historic trip to Iraq which he said opened "a new page" in ties between the neighbours.
Hitting back at charges by US President George W. Bush that it was Iran that was destablising its western neighbour, Ahmadinejad blamed what it regards as a continuing US occupation and stressed Shiite Iran's good relations with Iraq's Shiite majority which leads the post-invasion government.
"Six years ago there was no terrorism in our region. As soon as strangers (the Americans) put their foot in the region, the terrorists came here," Ahmadinejad said.
"The Americans should change their viewpoint concerning these issues," he added in response to the accusations from the White House.
Speaking at his Texas ranch on Saturday Bush, had called on Iran to "quit sending in sophisticated equipment that's killing our citizens."
But the Iranian president insisted in a joint news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that anti-American sentiment in Iraq was not Iran's fault as Iraq "does not want the US."
Ahmadinejad was on the first visit by an Iranian president to Iraq since the two neighbours lost an estimated one million people in a devastating 1980-1988 war during the iron-fisted regime of Saddam Hussein.
At a joint news conference with his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani, he hailed a "new page" in relations.
"We have the same understanding of things and the two parties are determined to strengthen their political, economic and cultural cooperation," he said.
Ahmadinejad acknowledged that Iraqis were going through "tough" times -- "but as we know, the Iraqi people will overcome the situation and the Iraq of tomorrow will be a powerful, developed and unique Iraq."
After seeing Talabani, Ahmadinejad drove to Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone to meet Maliki in his office, located just two kilometres (one mile) from the US embassy.
Maliki said the visit of Ahmadinejad was a "positive" signal to other regional states that they should develop ties with the new Iraq.
"There was a high level of trust and I frankly say that the recent Iranian position towards Iraq is extremely helpful," Maliki said in the news conference with Ahmadinejad.
"The visit will encourage and motivate neighbouring countries to visit Iraq."
Ahmadinejad said he understood the concerns about Kurdish rebels that had motivated Iraq's most populous neighbour Turkey to send troops across the border last month but added that Iraq's sovereignty needed to be respected.
"Terrorism is presently damaging everybody," said the Iranian president whose own country is facing an insurgency by a rebel group with close links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that has been fighting the Turkish army for the past 24 years.
"Everybody should fight terrorism. We have to have coordination between the governments of Turkey, Iran and Iraq," he said.
But he stressed that any action taken had to be in a way "that the sovereignty of Iraq is respected".
Iran's relations with Iraq have drastically improved under the new Shiite-led government installed after the US-led invasion of 2003 with many leading politicians being former rebels who found sanctuary in Iran under the old regime.
Trade between the two neighbours is brisk. Iran is also building a major airport to service the millions of pilgrims who visit the Shiite shrines of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq.
But not all Iraqis expressed happiness at Ahmadinejad's visit. "No! No, to Iranian intervention!" chanted a crowd of around 250 in the northern oil city of Kirkuk.
"As Iraqis, we can't let the Iranians and US settle their scores on Iraqi soil," one protester said.
Iran's relations with the United States remain frosty, 28 years after the two countries broke off diplomatic relations in the wake of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The US military has 14 Iranians in its custody in Iraq and says it has proof that Tehran supplies insurgents with armour-piercing explosives and rockets.
The two countries are also at odds over Iran's nuclear programme, which the United States suspects is a cover for an atomic weapons drive, something Iran denies.
Ahmadinejad was welcomed by Talabani with the traditional pomp and ceremony of a red-carpet greeting and honour guard as a military band played their national anthems.
Outside the Talabani compound, US troops who normally man key crossroads near the residence were nowhere to be seen. Kurdish peshmerga militiamen from the Iraqi presidential guard provided security instead.
http://news.smh.com.au/ahmadinejad-...80302-1w9r.html |
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| blue indian |
| Right, and the Iraqi's are thrilled we're there, bringing them freedom and all. :rolleyes: |
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| artechba |
| Amir Taheri. It's like Fox News covering Democratic caucuses. Deer in the headlights |
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| NCMike06 |
He doesn't...?? based on a few citations in wikipedia???? (one of which is 'Iranian sources' ) :burst: And given his significant history of writing/study....I would say his professional 'record' is pretty untouchable..
You see..Luther is unable to comment on the substance of what was written because it does not correspond with his worldview... He is the poster boy for intellectual DIS- honesty.
Recent photo of Luther:
Ohh, and it should be noted that wikipedia doesn't exactly have the reputation as the most credible source of information....for all we know, Luther posted that information into the wiki article that he linked... |
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| Luther |
| It's not even clear which "talking point" the article is supposed to disprove. |
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| Fdubya247 |
....another epic fail.
NCDike69
Limp Member
Jerk-off
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| Fdubya247 |
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| NCMike06 |
Quote: Originally posted by Luther
It's not even clear which "talking point" the article is supposed to disprove. |
That Iraq is now, somehow, going to become a client state of Iran (or something similar) because of the large Shiite population in Iraq... and how Iran is really the 'big winner' with Saddam no longer in power... ooooops.
Pay attention Luther, I hope I don't have to spell every little thing out for you... |
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| JTProcess |
Quote: Originally posted by NCMike06
That Iraq is now, somehow, going to become a client state of Iran (or something similar) because of the large Shiite population in Iraq... and how Iran is really the 'big winner' with Saddam no longer in power... ooooops.
Pay attention Luther, I hope I don't have to spell every little thing out for you... |
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| artie84 |
Quote: Originally posted by NCMike06
That Iraq is now, somehow, going to become a client state of Iran (or something similar) because of the large Shiite population in Iraq... and how Iran is really the 'big winner' with Saddam no longer in power... ooooops.
Pay attention Luther, I hope I don't have to spell every little thing out for you... |
wasn't that a right wing talking point?
"if we cut and run iran will take control" |
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| NCMike06 |
Quote: Originally posted by artie84
wasn't that a right wing talking point?
"if we cut and run iran will take control" |
Ummm no. |
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