Global Policy Forum

By Parisa Hafezi

Iran dismissed a long-awaited progress report by the two senior U.S. officials in Iraq on Wednesday, saying it would not "save America from Iraq's swamp" and calling on Washington to withdraw its troops.

General David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker testified to the U.S. Congress on Monday. Petraeus recommended cutting U.S. troops by about 30,000 by next July, ending a so-called surge of forces but not fundamentally changing strategy in the unpopular war. Iran has long called for U.S. forces to leave its neighbour, and a foreign ministry statement made clear the suggested troop withdrawal did not go far enough for Tehran. "This report does not reflect the real demands and priorities of the majority of the American people," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in the statement, according to the official IRNA news agency. "This report will not save America from Iraq's swamp."

It was the first official reaction from Tehran about the testimony, which has been welcomed by the Iraqi government. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad later told state television that: "Americans do not want to accept their failure in Iraq ... their only solution is to leave Iraq."

Petraeus and Crocker appeared at a congressional hearing seen as a pivotal moment in the U.S. debate over the war, which U.S. President George W. Bush has vowed to pursue but which many of the Democrats who control Congress say must end.

"Too Old"

Tehran and Washington, which have not had diplomatic ties since shortly after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, often trade blame for the bloodshed threatening to tear Iraq apart.

Iran rejects U.S. accusations it is fomenting instability by arming and training militias there and says the presence of 160,000 U.S. troops is causing the violence. The two old foes are also at loggerheads over Iran's nuclear programme, which the West suspects is aimed at making atom bombs. Iran says it aims to generate electricity. Despite their mutual accusations, Iran and the United States launched bilateral talks in Baghdad in May on ways to improve security in Iraq, their highest-profile contact in almost three decades. But it is unclear when they will meet again. "If the aim of the talks is to strengthen Iraq's government on a security level and politically, surely we are ready to continue the talks, and we will continue," Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told a news conference. "But otherwise we are too old to hold talks just for fun."

Ties between Shi'ite-dominated Iran and Iraq have improved since U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Arab who waged war against his neighbour in the 1980s, in the 2003 invasion. But unlike Iran, Iraq's government has welcomed Monday's testimony and said it would have less need for foreign forces to carry out combat operations "in the near future".