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Iran’s Rafsanjani blames U.S. for political divisions in Iraq |
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Monday, 23 January 2006 |
Iran Focus
 Tehran, Iran, Jan. 23 – Iran’s former President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani told radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr on Monday that the goals of United States-led forces in Iraq were against the demands of the Iraqi people.
Rafsanjani, who currently chairs the State Expediency Council, told firebrand Sadr that the “occupiers” where trying to create division among Iraqi groups because of their fear of a society ruled by the people, the state-run ISNA news agency reported.
“The goals of the occupiers are in contradiction to the wishes of the Iraqi people. By influencing the political events in that country they will try to force their imperialist goals on the future government”, Rafsanjani said, adding that Iraqi groups had a responsibility to work together to thwart the U.S.’s aims.
Rafsanjani said that Tehran was after a free and liberated Iraq under the influence of Islam.
Sadr, who travelled to Tehran over the weekend to meet senior Iranian officials, said during the meeting that the presence of foreign troops in Iraq was contributing to insecurity in the country.
He went on to say that the U.S.-led forces in Iraq were attempting to decrease the influence of religion in Iraqi society. “The Iraqi people want a country run under Islamic rule”, Sadr said.
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