Iran leader dismisses new Iraq caretaker government as US "lackey"

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040603/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_transition_iran&cid=1514&ncid=1480

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed Iraq (news - web sites)'s new caretaker administration as a "lackey" government at the beck and call of the United States. snip

"Humiliating Iraqi men, raping Iraqi women, breaking down the doors of Iraqi homes and installing a lackey government, that's what happens when you remove the clergy from politics," Khamenei said in a keynote speech marking the 15th anniversary of the death of his predecessor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.


His comments sparked chants of "Death to the United States", "Death to England," from the tens of thousands gathered for the anniversary at Khomenei's mausoleum on the southern outskirts of the capital.


"Iraq belongs to Iraqis and it is Iraqis who must decide their destiny," Khamenei said, arguing that those in power in Washington "have no right to decide who should run Iraqi affairs."

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