TEHRAN (AFP) — Reaction in Iran to the approval by Baghdad of a controversial military pact with Washington has been mixed, with praise from the judiciary, a blast from conservative papers and silence from government.
"In this regard the Iraqi government has performed well and we hope that the result will be to the benefit of Islam and the sovereignty of Iraq," Iran's chief of judiciary Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi was quoted as saying Tuesday on the judiciary website.
"Security and stability is in the interest of the regional nations. We hope the American troops leave Iraq according to the pact," added the judge, who is appointed by Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The controversial pact won approval from the Iraqi cabinet on Sunday with the support of the major political blocs representing Iraq's Shiite majority and its Sunni and Kurdish communities.
The agreement, due to be submitted for a final parliamentary vote on November 24, allows US forces to remain in Iraq until the end of 2011 and would replace a UN mandate which expires at the end of this year.
Parliament speaker Ali Larijani urged Iraqi lawmakers to resist the pact which he said strengthens "US hegemony in Iraq," in statements carried overnight by the official IRNA news agency.
"With this so-called security pact, they were after turning Iraq into antoher US state but the Iraqi sources of jurisprudence, government and nation resisted for eight months and changed the articles of the pact seven times," Larijani said.
"The Iraqi nation and parliament should realise that the time for resistance is not over yet," he was quoted as saying on Monday.
The Iranian government called for time before making public its views.
"We have to wait. Please allow us to make our stance after it is finalised. We want the reporters to wait until it is finalised," foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said on Monday.
Last month, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the agreement seeks to keep Iraq weak to help America "pillage" the country while Interior Minister Ali Kordan said Iran would oppose "any document that goes against the will of Iraqis and their leadership."
Iranian ultra-conservative newspapers have sharply criticised the pact.
Jomhuri Eslami in an editorial Tuesday entitled "Iraq: from pit to well," wrote, "(George W.) Bush's government pressure finally forced the Iraqi prime minister (Nuri al-Maliki) to accept the colonial agreement called security pact, which in reality is US (sponsored) capitulation."
The newspaper had on Monday headlined its report on the cabinet decision, "The Iraqi government gave in to the American capitulation."
Kayhan, a newspaper whose director is also appointed by Khamenei, ran a report under the headline, "Legal immunity for the occupiers on the Iraqi deputies' table," in reference to the fact that Iraqi lawmakers must now endorse the draft agreement before it can be signed by Maliki and Bush.
The United States frequently claims that Iran's Shiite majority is fomenting sectarian violence in neighbouring Shiite-dominated Iraq. Tehran has vehemently denied the charges, saying it is seeking stability in Iraq.
Iran and the Unites States have held three rounds of direct talks on security issues affecting Iraq.
During most of the 80s, Iran and Iraq fought a bloody war, leaving around a million casualties on both sides.
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