Cordial meetings between Mr Maliki and top Iranian leaders in Tehran, Bush says's Iran will pay dearly for meddling

Bush breaks up Iran-Iraq love-in

Correspondents in Washington and Tehran | August 11, 2007

US President George W. Bush yesterday told Tehran there would "be a price to pay" for meddling in Iraq and warned Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki against cosying up to the leaders of Iran.

Amid what Washington sees as unsettling signs of warming Baghdad-Tehran relations, Mr Bush said he was not surprised at pictures yesterday that showed cordial meetings between Mr Maliki and top Iranian leaders in Tehran, but he said he hoped the Shia leader was delivering a tough message.

"You don't want the picture to be kind of, you know, ducking it out" when on a diplomatic mission, he said, putting up his fists like a boxer.

In Tehran, Iran's leaders told Mr Maliki that US troops must leave Iraq.

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Mr Maliki that the presence of US troops was the biggest obstacle to restoring security.

Mr Maliki also met Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and national security chief Ali Larijani. Mr Maliki was quoted by Iranian state media as praising Iran's "constructive" role in "fighting terrorism" in Iraq -- a statement Mr Bush moved swiftly to contradict.

"If the signal is that Iran is constructive, I will have to have a heart-to-heart with my friend the Prime Minister because I do not believe they are," Mr Bush said.

"I don't think he, in his heart of hearts, thinks they're constructive either."

But Ayatollah Khamenei said that it was the presence of the US-led forces that was the "biggest misfortune" shadowing Iraq.

"The occupiers claim that if they exit now, Iraq will be destroyed. Whereas if the occupiers leave, all the Iraqi officials will move with full force to solve the people's problems," Ayatollah Khamenei said.

Mr Ahmadinejad told Mr Maliki: "Iran and Iraq both have heavy responsibilities to bring about peace and security in the region."

But Mr Bush insisted Iran was a destabilising force in Iraq, despite Tehran's assertion to Mr Maliki that it was helping secure his country. Calling Iran a "very troubling nation" that should be isolated, Mr Bush said: "When we catch you playing a non-constructive role (in Iraq), there will be a price to pay."

He said US officials had warned Iran in talks in Baghdad to stop shipping sophisticated roadside bombs into Iraq or face the "consequences".

Iran vehemently denies any such behaviour.

Mr Bush's comments came just days after he disagreed sharply with Afghan President Hamid Karzai about Iran's influence after Mr Karzai called Tehran a positive force in combating extremists in his country.

And they came as top US officials worried about the pace of political reconciliation in Iraq, amid misgivings in Washington about whether Mr Maliki wanted or was able to build bridges with minority Sunnis.

Mr Maliki's talks appeared to confirm the increasingly warm relations that have emerged between majority Shia Iraq and overwhelmingly Shia Iran following the fall of the Sunni-dominated regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Iran and Saddam's Iraq waged a war between 1980 and 1988 in which about one million people died.

Like many Iraqi Shia leaders, Mr Maliki lived in Iran during the war to escape persecution of his Dawa party by Saddam's regime.

In a highly symbolic move, Mr Maliki yesterday also met the families of Iranian officials arrested in Iraq by US forces on accusations of being members of an elite Revolutionary Guards force on a mission to stir trouble.

Iran insists the men were diplomats and is livid that the US has shown no sign of releasing them.

"The Iraqi Government will do all it can to release these people," Mr Maliki said, expressing optimism that the officials would be freed and condemning their arrest, state broadcasting said.

AFP
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