Ahmadinejad to U.S.: Get Lost from Mideast
Crystal Foust watches from County Road 56 as a helicopter flies over a wildfire burning in a mountainous area about 15 miles west of Fort Collins, Colo., on Sunday, June 10, 2012. Firefighters on Sunday were fighting wildfires that have spread quickly in parched forests in Colorado and New Mexico, forcing hundreds of people from their homes and the evacuation of wolves from a sanctuary. The Colorado fire grew to 22 square miles within about a day of being reported and has destroyed or damaged 18 structures. (AP Photo/The Denver Post, AAron Ontiveroz) MAGS OUT; TV OUT; INTERNET OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT / AAron Ontiveroz
The United States should pack up and leave the Middle East and stay out of regional affairs, Iran's president said Thursday during a visit to Damascus that follows a string of U.S. efforts to break up Syria's 30-year alliance with Tehran.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Arab nations will usher in a new Middle East "without Zionists and without colonialists."
"(The Americans) want to dominate the region but they feel Iran and Syria are preventing that," Ahmadinejad said during a news conference with Syrian President Bashar Assad. "We tell them that instead of interfering in the region's affairs, to pack their things and leave."
A string of high-profile visits to Damascus in recent months - from the U.S., France, and now Iran - shows Syria's strategic importance in the Middle East.
WorldWatch: Syria Dismisses Calls to Cut Ties to Iran
U.S. President Barack Obama is determined to engage with Syria, a country seen as key to peace in the region but which the State Department has long considered a state sponsor of terrorism.
Ahmadinejad's trip comes amid rising U.S. tension with Tehran over the country's nuclear program. The U.S. and others believe Iran is hiding nuclear weapons development under the guise of a civilian energy program. Iran insists that its intentions are peaceful.
On Thursday, Assad signaled his strong support for Iran, saying America's stance on Iran "is a new situation of colonialism in the region."
Still, Assad could be open to a breakthrough with the Americans. He is hoping for U.S. help in boosting a weak economy and for American mediation in direct peace talks with Israel - a recognition that he needs American involvement to achieve his top goal of winning the return of the Golan Heights, seized by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War.
But Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that the recent decision to send the first U.S. ambassador to Syria in five years does not mean U.S. concerns about the country have been addressed.
Speaking to lawmakers, Clinton said the nomination of career diplomat Robert Ford is a sign of a "slight opening" with Syria. But she said Washington remains troubled by suspected Syrian support for militant groups in Iraq and elsewhere, interference in Lebanon and Syria's close relationship with Iran.
Former President George W. Bush withdrew the last U.S. ambassador to Syria in 2005 to protest its actions in Lebanon after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which his supporters blamed on Syria.
Washington also has retained its sanctions on Damascus. The sanctions were first imposed by Bush and renewed by Mr. Obama in May.
AP Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Arab nations will usher in a new Middle East "without Zionists and without colonialists."
"(The Americans) want to dominate the region but they feel Iran and Syria are preventing that," Ahmadinejad said during a news conference with Syrian President Bashar Assad. "We tell them that instead of interfering in the region's affairs, to pack their things and leave."
A string of high-profile visits to Damascus in recent months - from the U.S., France, and now Iran - shows Syria's strategic importance in the Middle East.
WorldWatch: Syria Dismisses Calls to Cut Ties to Iran
U.S. President Barack Obama is determined to engage with Syria, a country seen as key to peace in the region but which the State Department has long considered a state sponsor of terrorism.
Ahmadinejad's trip comes amid rising U.S. tension with Tehran over the country's nuclear program. The U.S. and others believe Iran is hiding nuclear weapons development under the guise of a civilian energy program. Iran insists that its intentions are peaceful.
On Thursday, Assad signaled his strong support for Iran, saying America's stance on Iran "is a new situation of colonialism in the region."
Still, Assad could be open to a breakthrough with the Americans. He is hoping for U.S. help in boosting a weak economy and for American mediation in direct peace talks with Israel - a recognition that he needs American involvement to achieve his top goal of winning the return of the Golan Heights, seized by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War.
But Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that the recent decision to send the first U.S. ambassador to Syria in five years does not mean U.S. concerns about the country have been addressed.
Speaking to lawmakers, Clinton said the nomination of career diplomat Robert Ford is a sign of a "slight opening" with Syria. But she said Washington remains troubled by suspected Syrian support for militant groups in Iraq and elsewhere, interference in Lebanon and Syria's close relationship with Iran.
Former President George W. Bush withdrew the last U.S. ambassador to Syria in 2005 to protest its actions in Lebanon after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which his supporters blamed on Syria.
Washington also has retained its sanctions on Damascus. The sanctions were first imposed by Bush and renewed by Mr. Obama in May.
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In short, let's outsource the military, along with all the other jobs.
Let's save our money, by bringing home of troops and begin drilling for our own oil within our own nation.
Just because we put a damper on your evil plans, that's no reason to be bitter......
Let the UN make a state of Palestinian Authority next to Israel since there exists an unwillingness to negotiate. The expatriate Palestinians live in camps/villages all around the neighboring countries and want to return 'home,' after having fled the 1948 war incident to the creation of Israel.
My point is to disarm Israel's nuclear power in front of the Arab nations...and then disarm Iran. By iron closure of total sanctions and or force. THAT two step plan would deprive Ahmadinejad and others like him from the hate raving....and seeking nuclear weapons to drag the whole world into their battlefield.
Between the EU, US, NATO and the UN...you think we could manage that: disarm two regimes dead set on using whatever force they have to wreck havoc on the world since one survived the holocaust of WWII and the other denies it happened.
Iran should practice what it preaches and quit manipulating Iraq's politics this instant. It should also take its mercenary armies out of Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and all of Africa. Iran is the worlds largest exporter of terrorism, larger than Saudi Arabia.
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Mr. Obama has been drinking his own koolaid - a soporific mixture of naivete, self-importance and blind ambition.
Israel is not going to give Golan to the Syrians just because Pres. Barack Obama says so. That's insane.
And if Mr. Obama thinks throwing money at the Syrians is going to disengage them from their 30 year love affair with Iran, he's got another think coming.
The Saudis are already financing terrorism and/or fighting proxy wars in Lebanon and Yemen, which is why Syria is permanently on the global terrorism watch-list.
Mr. Obama's fine-tuned community organizing skills, smooth rhetorical style and fashion sense will not help him this time.
Wondering...