Iranian leader’s Iraq visit shows up U.S.
“The Iranians are trying to make it clear to the U.S. and the Arab world that they are a force in the region”
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BAGHDAD | President Bush’s leading nemesis in the Middle East, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, begins a two-day state visit to Iraq on Sunday, attempting to highlight Iran’s role as the region’s major power and upstage Bush and the U.S. military presence.
Unlike Bush, who’s traveled to Iraq twice unannounced and on his last visit never left an American base in Anbar province, Ahmadinejad not only announced his trip in advance but also is planning to visit two major Shiite Muslim holy sites, Karbala and Najaf, at the end of a mammoth Shiite pilgrimage that was marred by a suicide bombing. Read more