Agence France-Presse,
TEHRAN (AFP): Iran and neighbouring countries are ready to fill the “power vacuum” emerging in the Middle East as US power in Iraq wanes, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday.
“You (the United States) cannot preserve your power over Iraq with a few tanks, artillery and weapons. Today, you are prisoners of your own quagmire. You have no choice but to accept the rights of the Iraqi people,” he said.
“I can tell you there will be a power vacuum in the region. We are ready with other regional countries, such as Saudi Arabia, and the people of Iraq to fill this vacuum.”
The United States has expressed its discomfort over the increasingly strong relationship between Iran and Baghdad, disapproving of comments made by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on a recent visit to Tehran.
The White House said in a statement on Tuesday that US President George W. Bush wants Tehran to halt “at once” any Iranian support for fighters targeting US-led forces in Iraq.
In a preview of a speech Bush was to give in Reno, Nevada, to the American Legion veterans group, Washington renewed charges that Iranian elements have provided training, support, and weapons for extremists in Iraq.
“The Iranian regime must halt these actions at once,” the White House statement said.
Some Western analysts have argued that Iran has been the chief beneficiary of the US invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, helping Tehran to boosts its influence in the region.
Ahmadinejad on Tuesday accused the United States of trying to destabilise the Shiite-dominated Maliki government, but said that such moves were doomed to failure.
“Wait two or three months and the US pressure initiative on the Iraqi government will break down,” he said. “The ones who came to occupy are losing their power.”
He also shrugged off the notion that the United States intends to label Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards a terrorist group as a “joke.”
US officials have said Bush is set to issue an executive order blacklisting the Guards as a terrorist group in order to block its assets.
“It is unlikely that the United States would make such an irrational move,” Ahmadinejad added.
