AFP: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday dismissed as a “sheer lie” US charges that the Islamic republic was supplying arms and training to insurgents killing American troops in Iraq.
TEHRAN (AFP) Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday dismissed as a “sheer lie” US charges that the Islamic republic was supplying arms and training to insurgents killing American troops in Iraq.
“The idiotic policies of the United States in Iraq have led to the killing of its troops,” state television quoted the all-powerful leader as saying.
“The US administration is faced with criticism from its own people over its wrong policies. It wrongly accuses Iran as it has no answers,” he told thousands of student members of the hardline Basij militia in Tehran.
The United States accuses Iran of seeking to sabotage security in Iraq by supplying weapons, including rockets, armour-piercing explosives and mines that have killed American soldiers.
Earlier this month, Washington adopted sanctions against Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards corps and its elite Quds force which US commanders accuse of arming and training Shiite militias that have attacked US troops in Iraq.
Iran has always denied the charges and blames the US-led forces for the instability and violence in its western neighbour.
It also wants the release of six Iranian officials detained by US forces in Iraq, who Washington accuses of being members of the Quds force on a covert mission to stir trouble in Iraq.
In January, the US military detained five Iranians, who Tehran insists were diplomats, in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil. Another Iranian official, Mahmoud Farhadi, was detained by the US military in September.
