Ahmadinejad advises US to leave region

Amid concerns about the continuing presence of US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Iranian president advises the White House to withdraw its troops from the region.

Addressing a large crowd in Iran’s southwestern city of Yasuj on Wednesday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the era of occupation and plundering other nation’s national resources is over.

“You’d better listen to the Iranian nations’ advice: Abandon your stubbornness; live with other nations based on justice and friendship, like human beings; leave the region; leave Afghanistan; leave Iraq; withdraw to your borders and mind your own business,” the president said.

Ahmadinejad also offered to help the United States and its allies get out of the “quagmire” they have created in the region.

Tehran blames Washington for the instability that has gripped the Middle East amid the presence of US-led forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in the US, was launched with the official objectives of curbing militancy and bringing peace and stability to the country.

Nine years on, however, the US is criticized for its inability to accomplish any of the objectives while Afghan civilians continue to pay the price.

The White House now plans to dispatch 30,000 extra troops to the country in the summer to counter the increasing militancy in Afghanistan.

President Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, warned his American counterpart that should he fail to bring an end to the occupation of Afghanistan, the US administration will be ridiculed, and the Iranian nation will teach him a lesson.