Iran rejects UN resolution as state visit to Iraq ends

IRAN:TEHRAN YESTERDAY condemned a United Nations Security Council resolution imposing fresh sanctions on Iran's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.

But anger over the measure was overshadowed by the triumphant two-day visit of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Baghdad. He was the first foreign head of state to make an official visit since the 2003 war, and the first Iranian head of state ever to do so.

As soon as his aircraft landed at Baghdad's airport on Sunday, he thumbed his nose at western leaders who arrive in Iraq unheralded and remain in the fortified Green Zone or at military bases.

He made the point that the citizens of neighbouring Iraq and Iran have "lived with each other for hundreds of years" and compared Iranian openness to western secretiveness.

He was greeted by foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari and whisked by car along the dangerous airport highway to a reception at the residence of president Jalal Talabani, a Kurd with long-standing ties to Tehran.

Despite bombs that killed 26, Mr Ahmadinejad travelled by road. Other world figures go by helicopter. Mr Ahmadinejad spent most of his time outside the Green Zone, but did enter and depart through a gate guarded by Kurdish militiamen rather than troopers from the US which regards Iran a "state sponsor of terrorism."

Mr Ahmadinejad met prime minister Nuri al-Maliki of the Dawa party and Abdel Aziz al-Hakim of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council. Both men are Shias who took refuge in Iran during Baathist rule and maintain close connections with Tehran.

Dismissing US allegations of Iranian complicity in attacks on US and Iraqi forces, the Iraqis praised Iran for helping to quell violence and thanked it for financing reconstruction of the Shia holy city of Najaf, damaged during fighting in 2004.

Iran is also building an international airport for the pilgrim cities of Najaf and Kerbala. Mr Ahmadinejad offered a $1 billion (€657 million) loan and pledged to boost trade and Iranian pilgrim traffic.

In a shot at the Bush administration, Mr Ahmadinejad said: "Peace and stability will only return to the region if the foreigners leave."