(AKI) - Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a close aide of Iran's supreme leader Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and the head of the powerful Guardians' Council watchdog, said Friday. Tehran remains "anti-American and a foe of the United States" despite the first high level talks between the two countries in three decades which took place earlier this month in Baghdad. Jannati, who was addressing faithful during prayers at Tehran's university, stressed that the "talks in Baghdad do not change in the least the anti-American policies of the Islamic Republic. If the Americans want to guarantee a certain level of security to their citizens they must pull out of Iraq and abandon the region."
The first high-level meeting in 27 years between US and Iranian officials - US ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Kazemi Qomi - took place on 28 May in the Iraqi capital and focused solely on security in Iraq. Washington, which broke relations with Iran in 1980 after the Iranian Islamic revolution and the storming of the US embassy in Tehran, accuses Iran of funding, arming and training Shiite insurgents in Iraq. Iran rejects the claim and says Washington must withdraw its troops from Iraq. |