AP News, June 26th, 2007
Iran's supreme leader accused the United States of damaging relations between Iran and Iraq and charged that American and Israeli agents were behind the Iraqi insurgency, state-run Iranian television said Tuesday.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani that "Americans have been opposing improvement in relations between Iran and Iraq and they are trying to damage the relations ... but the two countries should resist the damage," the report said.
Khamenei, who has final say in Iran's state affairs, also blamed U.S. and Israeli intelligence services for the violent insurgency that wracks neighboring Iraq, the report said.
It quoted Talabani as saying Iraq would pursue better ties with Iran.
Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Mehdi Mostafavi earlier said a new round of U.S.-Iran talks on Iraqi security would be discussed during Talabani's visit.
Since the first round of talks in Baghdad in May last month, tensions have risen between Iran and the United States over Tehran's detention of four Iranian-American scholars and activists charged with endangering national security.
Iran already had been angered by the January detention of five Iranian officials by U.S. troops in Iraq and warned that Washington would "regret" the move.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said this month, however, that Iran would respond to an invitation for continued talks with the U.S. "with a positive point of view."
Iran considers U.S. troops in Iraq a threat to Iran's security and has demanded they leave. Washington accuses Iran of arming and financing Shiite Muslim militias fighting American and Iraqi troops.
