Iran Urges Iraq to Seek Pullout Timetable

18 minutes ago

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's supreme leader urged the Iraqi president on Tuesday to seek a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, saying the American presence harms the country.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who is paying a three-day visit to Iran, a country the United States accuses of meddling in Iraq but that is closely allied to Iraq's new Shiite and Kurd-dominated leadership.

"The government and people of Iraq can with their voices seek a timetable for the exit of the occupiers," Khamenei told Talabani, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency. "Certainly, in the end the Americans and British will be forced by bitter experience to leave Iraq."

Leaders from Iraq's divided Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities agreed in a conference in Cairo this week to call for a timetable for a U.S. withdrawal, but gave no specific timeframe and tied it the training of Iraqi forces to carry on the fight against Sunni-led insurgents. The interior minister said this week he expected Iraqi forces to be capable of taking over security duties by the end of next year.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051122/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_iraq