Regis Philbin
Mar 3rd, 2008, 07:05 PM
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080303/D8V5V0V00.html
Ahmadinejad: US Should Leave Iraq
Mar 3, 7:32 AM (ET)
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday dismissed U.S. accusations that his country is training extremists and demanded that the Americans withdraw from Iraq.
Speaking in a nearly hour-long news conference at the end of an unprecedented visit to Iraq, Ahmadinejad said the U.S. allegations - that Iran is training Shiite militants who target American troops and Muslim rivals - don't matter to the Iranians.
"Of course American officials make such remarks and such statements, and we do not care ... because they make statements on the basis of erroneous information," said the hard-line Iranian leader, who smiled through much of the session. "We cannot count on what they say."
He said the foreign presence in Iraq was an "insult to the regional nations and a humiliation."
Ahmadinejad is the first Iranian president to visit Iraq, and his two-day trip highlighted one of the unintended consequences for Washington after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of the Iraq that ousted Saddam Hussein from power.
Ahmadinejad: US Should Leave Iraq
Mar 3, 7:32 AM (ET)
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday dismissed U.S. accusations that his country is training extremists and demanded that the Americans withdraw from Iraq.
Speaking in a nearly hour-long news conference at the end of an unprecedented visit to Iraq, Ahmadinejad said the U.S. allegations - that Iran is training Shiite militants who target American troops and Muslim rivals - don't matter to the Iranians.
"Of course American officials make such remarks and such statements, and we do not care ... because they make statements on the basis of erroneous information," said the hard-line Iranian leader, who smiled through much of the session. "We cannot count on what they say."
He said the foreign presence in Iraq was an "insult to the regional nations and a humiliation."
Ahmadinejad is the first Iranian president to visit Iraq, and his two-day trip highlighted one of the unintended consequences for Washington after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of the Iraq that ousted Saddam Hussein from power.