Iran on Saturday welcomed moves by the new US President Barack Obama to pull American troops out of Iraq and insisted that Tehran would not meddle in elections here.
“We definitely welcome a US troop pullout from Iraq,” Iran”s ambassador in Baghdad Hasan Kazemi Qomi told AFP in an interview.
“This is what the Iraqi people and the government wants.”
Obama has upped the tempo of a planned drawdown from Iraq since his inauguration on Tuesday, instructing top US commanders to prepare a “responsible” exit strategy, although other officials have been more cautious.
During his election campaign, Obama promised to bring all US troops home from Iraq within 16 months of taking office, but also said he would listen to his generals, and later narrowed the reduction pledge to combat units.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has since said he has been assured by Washington that there will be no rapid US withdrawal.
Under an agreement signed between Washington and Baghdad in November the US military is due to withdraw combat soldiers from Iraq by the end of 2011.
Kazemi Qomi, whose country has been accused repeatedly by the US of fomenting sectarian strife in Iraq to destabilise its fragile security, said it was up to Iraq”s people to decide if they wanted American troops on their soil.
