Weekly says U.S. furious at Iran-Iraq high-level exchanges

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Dec. 01 – A radical Islamist weekly close to Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad trumpeted the recent visit by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to Iran and his meeting with the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as having invoked the fury of senior United States officials. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Dec. 01 – A radical Islamist weekly close to Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad trumpeted the recent visit by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to Iran and his meeting with the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as having invoked the fury of senior United States officials.

“The American ambassador to Iraq officially protested to the Iraqi government and displayed his fury, after the meeting between Jalal Talabani and the Supreme Leader, who lashed out at the U.S.”, the ultra-conservative weekly Parto-Sokhan wrote in its latest issue.

The paper quoted an Iraqi security official as saying that through its embassy in Baghdad Washington had “strongly protested” high-level meetings between Iraqi and Iranian officials.

“The U.S. strongly protested the anti-American comments of Ayatollah Khamenei in the meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. They were critical of the Iraqi President”, the paper wrote, adding that Washington was also concerned security agreements between the two states.

“U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, told Iraqi officials: Not only did Talabani fail to react to the anti-American comments of the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but he also insisted on strengthening ties with Tehran”, the report added.

“We have lost hope in Talabani completely”, he said, adding that Iraqi press had given prominent coverage to the meeting and Khamenei’s anti-U.S. stance.

Parto-Sokhan is published in the Shiite holy city of Qom by the Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute. The institute’s chairman, ultra-conservative cleric Ayatollah Mohammad-Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, is regarded as the ideological mentor of Iran’s hard-line President Ahmadinejad.