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Ahmadinejad reveals attempt on his life during Baghdad visit

Baghdad – Voices of Iraq
Friday , 20 /06 /2008

Baghdad, Jun 20, (VOI) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad revealed that he was in possession of documented information about an attempt by “enemies” to kidnap and assassinate him during a visit he had paid to Iraq early last March.

“I’ve refused during my visit to Iraq to reside in the U.S.-protected green zone,” Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted Ahmadinejad as saying on Thursday evening.

“The enemies have planned to kidnap and assassinate me but thank God I’ve changed my visit schedule, and when they have found out I had been already out of Iraq,” said the Iranian president.

Ahmadinejad had arrived in the Iraqi capital Baghdad in early March for a two-day visit, the first ever by an Iranian president since the outbreak of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. He met with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The Iranian leader declined to reside in central Baghdad’s heavily-fortified green zone. Talabani hosted Ahmadinejad at his residence in al-Jadiriya, Baghdad. The visit agenda was changed then.

Ahmadinejad did not elaborate about the information he has. However, he said he was the first president to arrive in Iraq upon a previously announced visit, adding the U.S. president and British prime minister have visited Iraq depending on the large presence of their troops in the country and stayed for a few hours.

The Iranian president, during a visit to Iraq previously announced two weeks earlier, was accompanied by an economic and trade delegation. He signed a contract to facilitate passage of trucks between the two countries and issue special visas for businessmen.

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Mercury News

TEHRAN, Iran—Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday accused the United States of plotting to kidnap and assassinate him during a visit to Iraq, state media reported.

The president told a meeting of clerics in the central city of Qom that Iran’s “enemies” planned to kill him when he went to Baghdad in March, according to the president’s Web site. Iranian leaders usually use the term “enemies” to refer to Western nations and the United States in particular.

The report on the presidential Web site did not specify the United States as the source of the plot. But state television reported that Ahmadinejad had “unveiled a shocking story”—that “Americans had intended to kidnap him during his trip to Iraq.”

Ahmadinejad said the plot was never carried out because of “intentional” last-minute changes in his schedule during the visit, the Web site said. He said the conspirators learned about the changes after he left Iraq.

Ahmadinejad’s trip to Baghdad was the first by an Iranian leader since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, a sign of the close ties between Tehran and the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

During his visit, Ahmadinejad did not stay in the heavily fortified Green Zone, where the Iraqi government and U.S. Embassy are centered and where most visiting dignitaries reside. Instead, he stayed in a compound that includes the home of President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, head of Iraq’s largest Shiite party, both of whom have strong ties to Tehran, the security official said. His security was provided by members of the Shiite Badr Movement, close to al-Hakim, and Kurdish peshmerga fighters, instead of army or police, the official said.

Iran and the U.S. have no diplomatic relations since shortly after the 1979 storming of the U.S. Embassy by militant students who held American hostages for 444 days.

Tensions have been high between Washington and Tehran over U.S. accusations that Iran aims to build a nuclear weapon and that it is financing and arming anti-U.S. Shiite militias in Iraq. Iran denies both charges.