- TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iraqis
stormed their embassy in the Iranian capital on Friday, tearing down photographs
of Saddam Hussein but also chanting "Death to America."
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- Iran's supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
welcomed the overthrow of the Iraqi leader by U.S. troops but urged them
to quit Iraq immediately.
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- "You toppled Saddam, so now leave," he said
in a sermon at Friday prayers attended by tens of thousands of worshippers.
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- Exiled Iraqis climbed over the walls of the Iraqi embassy,
ransacked the villa and smashed windows and furniture.
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- After ripping and burning the embassy's portraits of
Saddam, the protesters carried inside pictures of Ayatollah Mohammad Bakir
Hakim, leader of the Iranian-based Supreme Council for the Revolution in
Iraq (SCIRI), and hung one on the embassy gates.
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- Hakim, whose group draws its support from Iraq's Shi'ite
Muslim majority, has been in exile in Shi'ite Iran since 1979.
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- Chanting "Death to Saddam," "Death to
America" and "We want a democratic government," the protesters,
including women wearing the traditional black chador, carried banners of
the Badr Brigade, SCIRI's armed wing which it says numbers tens of thousands
of fighters.
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- The occupation ended after three hours when police arrested
about 50 people. Police also confiscated film and cassettes from news photographers
and television cameramen, witnesses said. No Iraqi diplomats were present
at the time.
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- There are about 200,000 Iraqis living in Iran, many of
them Shi'ite Muslims who fled their country after a failed Shi'ite uprising
against Saddam in 1991 at the end of the Gulf War.
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- NO TO FOREIGNERS IN IRAQ
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- Khamenei, in his speech, called the U.S.-led military
campaign in Iraq "an attack against Islam and Muslims" but said
Iran was happy at the fall of Saddam.
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- Torn between its deep hatred for Saddam, whose forces
used chemical weapons against Iranian troops during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq
war, and its enmity for the United States, Iran has maintained neutrality
in the conflict on its doorstep.
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- "We didn't help either side, but we're happy about
Saddam's fall, like the Iraqi people are," Khamenei said.
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- The head of Iran's conservative clerical establishment
insisted that Iraqis should elect their next leader and denounced U.S.
plans to set up a civil administration to be headed by retired General
Jay Garner.
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- "The new ruler should not be a foreigner, a military
man, a Zionist, but someone elected by the Iraqi people," he said.
"Iraqis want a government based on their religious and national beliefs."
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- He cautioned Iraqi opposition groups against cooperating
with the United States. "If anybody helps foreigners to firm up their
rule in Iraq, it would be a historic disgrace," he said.
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- AMERICANS ARE "REAL AXIS OF EVIL"
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- Khamenei, who holds all the keys of power in Iran and
has the final say on foreign policy, railed against the "military
aggressor" and branded the military occupation of Iraq "a return
to colonialism, a reactionary, ugly and insulting move."
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- Saying Iraqis would not accept "a new dictatorship,"
Khamenei however seemed to hold no hopes that U.S. troops would leave Iraq
any time soon.
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- "If you respect, as you said, democracy and Iraqi
people's rights you should leave Iraq right now," he said. "But,
of course, they are not going to leave, because they were lying."
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- Adopting his traditional anti-U.S. rhetoric, he said
Americans "with this occupation proved they are... the real axis of
evil, and the Great Satan."
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- President Bush last year listed Iran on an "axis
of evil," along with Iraq and North Korea, for allegedly sponsoring
terrorism and developing weapons of mass destruction. Iran denies the charges.
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- Tehran and Washington severed relations in the wake of
the 1979 Islamic Revolution which toppled the U.S.-backed shah. Islamic
radicals stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage
for 444 days. (Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi)
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