In northern city of Kirkuk Iraqis during a gathering hammered a banner onto the wall reading in Arabic “We denounce Iran’s intervention in Iraqi affairs.”
Over 130 Iraqi tribal leaders from southern Iraq in a strongly worded joint statement condemned the visit by Ahmadinejad to their country.
In northern city of Kirkuk Iraqis during a gathering hammered a banner onto the wall reading in Arabic “We denounce Iran’s intervention in Iraqi affairs.”
Over 130 Iraqi tribal leaders from southern Iraq in a strongly worded joint statement condemned the visit by Ahmadinejad to their country.
“Since five years ago Iraq has turned into the scene of the Iranian regime’s meddling and aggression. Everyday hundreds of Iraqis are victims of the Iranian exported terrorism. In southern Iraq we are witnessing the murder of our children and ransack of our oil and other national wealth by the criminal elements of the Iranian regime,” the statement said.
“The visit [by Ahmadinejad] is against our national interest and is against the will of Iraqi people. It is unacceptable for any Iraqi citizen. The Iraqi government should stop it,” the statement added.
In last few days hundreds of demonstrators marched the streets of Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of the capital, chanting anti-Ahmadinejad slogans. They burned his pictures and many held banners including one that read: "We condemn visit of terrorist and butcher Ahmadinejad to Iraq," Associated Press reported on Saturday.
"We wish that there would be a commitment from the Iranian president personally to cease all kind of interventions in Iraq’s security and political affairs," Abdul-Karim al-Samaraie, a lawmaker with the main Sunni parliamentary bloc, the Iraqi Accordance Front, told the Arabic language TV station Al-Jazeera.
Ahmadinejad’s visit to Iraq has prompted widespread protests by Iraqi political personalities and parties critical of Iranian regime’s meddling in Iraq.
Mr. Muhammad al-Daini, a member of Iraqi National Assembly from the Iraqi National Dialogue Front called for protests against upcoming visit by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian regime’s president, the Al-Hurra Arabic-language satellite TV channel reported on Friday.
Mr. Daini said that Iranian regime is responsible for murder of thousands of Iraqis by the Iranian backed armed militia groups in Iraq. He called for the shutdown of Iranian regime’s diplomatic offices in Iraq.
Photo by AFP: Iraqis hammer a banner onto a wall reading in Arabic ‘We denounce Iran’s intervention in Iraqi affairs’ during a gathering in the northern city of Kirkuk on March 2, 2008.