- TEHRAN (AFP) - The head of
Iraq's top Shiite political party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic
Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), said Wednesday that any new UN resolution needs
to take into account demands that US troops quit the country as soon as
possible.
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- "There is international pressure on the US to withdraw
its forces from Iraq, and there are demands for the US to be clear on a
withdrawal date. So of course we are with the international community to
shorten the occupation in Iraq," Abdel Aziz al-Hakim told AFP in an
interview.
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- "We hope they leave as soon as possible," said
the cleric, who was speaking in a central Tehran mosque following a ceremony
marking 40 days of mourning for his brother and predecessor as SCIRI leader,
Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim.
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- Abdel Aziz, a member of Iraq's US-sponsored Governing
Council, took over the leadership of the SCIRI following the death of his
brother in an August car bombing in Najaf.
-
- Pending the US withdrawal he wants to see, Hakim argued
that the United States needed to hand over more security responsibilities
to the Iraqi people.
-
- "Since the Iraqi people are capable of maintaining
peace and security, we think that the occupying forces should change their
security policies," he asserted.
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- "The Iraqi people can do the job. There is no need
for foreign countries to send their troops, but they can help in Iraq's
reconstruction," added Hakim after a ceremony attended by top Iranian
military and political officials and clerics.
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- "The US is making a mistake in the way in which
it is trying to solve the profound security problem in Iraq, and so has
trapped itself and the Iraqi people in a quagmire. Therefore it should
change its security policy."
-
- The same, he said, also applied to Spanish-led troops
now in charge of the holy city of Najaf, and Polish troops posted elsewhere
in the south.
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- "They need to seek our help in establishing peace.
They need to meet more regularly with us," he said.
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- Abdel Aziz, whose group was based in exile in Iran during
much of Saddam Hussein's rule, said he had held a string of meetings with
top officials of the Islamic republic.
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- These included supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
President Mohammad Khatami, powerful ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani,
justice chief Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi, national security council
chief Hassan Rowhani, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi and parliament speaker
Mehdi Karrubi.
-
- He would only say that the purpose of his visit was to
thank Iran for its support and condolences following the death of his elder
brother, who lived in exile in Shiite-majority Iran for 23 years.
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- Abdel Aziz denied he was carrying any message between
US and Iranian officials, amid a climate of hostility between Washington
and Tehran and US allegations of Iranian meddling in post-war Iraq.
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