- TEHRAN (MNA) - Iran on Sunday
castigated the United States for returning to office former Iraqi Baath
Party officials, saying Washington has taken the place of ousted Iraqi
dictator Saddam Hussein.
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- Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi noted that
U.S. policies in Iraq are unethical and based on self-interest.
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- Since the United States has had no clear strategy in
Iraq -- or if it had one it was flawed -- it is employing a trial and error
approach despite the fact that all Iraqi officials and religious leaders
have opposed it, Asefi said at his weekly press briefing.
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- Asefi added that whenever U.S. officials reach a dead
end they adopt the worst solutions.
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- The White House announced last Thursday that it was considering
a change in policy that would let some former members of the Baath Party
join the interim Iraqi government.
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- The U.S. had earlier banned Baathists from the Iraqi
government, but observers believe that the sudden change in policy was
made in order to more efficiently combat the rising tide of resistance
against the occupation sweeping across Iraq.
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- It was expected that the Iraqi people would be able to
happily celebrate the one-year anniversary of the fall of Saddam, but this
was not the case since the people are not satisfied with the conduct of
U.S. occupation forces.
-
- The Foreign Ministry spokesman added that the U.S. is
only thinking about its long-term interests and Iraqi oil and does not
care about the Iraqi people. "At one juncture the U.S. creates Al-Qaeda
and then puts them aside, or it supports Saddam and then removes him. Such
actions are based on immoral and selfish concepts," Asefi said, adding,
"What is happening in Iraq is in line with the interests of the Americans."
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- A senior U.S. military official said on Sunday that Mohammed
Latif, a retired Iraqi general, has been chosen to take charge of the Fallujah
brigade in order to halt the violence in the flashpoint Sunni city.
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- Latif did not serve in the Republican Guard, unlike Major
General Jassem Mohammed Salah, who is currently in charge of the brigade's
sole battalion and who received a hero's welcome when he arrived in the
city on Friday, according to the AFP news agency.
-
- General Salah "is still serving and he is under
instruction from General Latif," the senior U.S. military official
said.
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- http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=5/3/2004&Cat=2&Num=039
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