Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he expects “a change to occur” in Tehran-Baghdad ties after US military forces pull out from neighbouring Iraq, in an interview with CNN. “I think a change will occur. We have special relations with Iraq,” Ahmadinejad said. He called the US withdrawal “a good thing.”
US officials have long accused Iran of arming and supporting Shiite militias in Iraq against US troops.
But he and other Iranian officials have repeatedly called for US troops to leave Iraq ever since the 2003 invasion which overthrew Saddam Hussein
“I think this is a good thing and should have been carried out a long time ago. If it were done seven or eight years ago, there would have been fewer Iraqi and American forces killed,” Ahamdinejad said. Asked about the possibility of Iran and Iraq cooperating militarily in the future, Ahmadinejad said: “The Iraqi govt is independent. It is they who have to decide how to train their military forces. We have to wait for the Iraqi govt’s decision.” He stressed that Tehran had established “special relations with Iraq” since the overthrow of Saddam, who had launched a devastating but ultimately unsuccessful 1980-1988 war against Iran.