PanARMENIAN.Net

Zalmay Khalilzad: Iran should be thankful to U.S.
02.02.2008 13:40 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Iran is stronger today because of
the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S.
representative to UN Zalmay Khalilzad said.

The 2003 invasion of Iraq removed a key rival of
Shiite Iran with the ouster of Saddam Hussein’s
Sunni-dominated government. Iran has friendly ties
with the Shiites now in power in Iraq.

"It’s helped Iran’s relative position in the region,
because Iraq was a rival of Iran … and the balance
there has disintegrated or weakened," Amb. Khalilzad
said Friday while answering questions from students at
Columbia University’s School of International and
Public Affairs. "And so one of the objectives of Iran,
in my view, is to discourage a reemergence of Iraq as
a balancer. And Afghanistan, too, the change was
helpful to Iran," he said, the AP reports.