Ayatollah Jannati advises Iraqis not to bow to humiliating pact

5 September 2008

Tehran-Substitute Friday prayers leader of Tehran Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati on Friday advised Iraqi people and officials not to bow to humiliation through signing a pact with the US.

Delivering his second Friday prayers sermons to large groups of worshippers at Tehran University campus, Ayatollah Jannati said under the deal, the occupying forces will from 2009 to 2011 evacuate Iraqi cities and move to garrisons.

Ayatollah Jannati said that additionally, occupying forces and the institutions relating to them will under the pact remain immune.

"The agreement envisions immunity in garrisons and their institutions in Iraq and they will be allowed to re-do whatever they can," said Ayatollah Jannati.

He said Iraqi people and authorities should not be under yoke of such a humiliation.

"God does not accept humiliation of a Muslim. The humiliation will be transferred to other generations. If you accept the agreement, Americans will never leave the country then," he added.

The cleric said any move in Iraq should be in accordance with public wishes and consent and supported by the Shiite clerics.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ayatollah Jannati called on the media not to depreciate and undermine government's "big and fundamental" economic development plan and present fair and expert-level views on it.

"Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution has in his remarks repeatedly hailed the plan as a master plan which cannot be handled without courage and bravery," he said.

He added that if the plan is implemented there will be a big evelopment in the country, many shortcomings will be removed and a relative welfare will be brought about as a result.

In his first sermon, Ayatollah Jannati said enemies have concentrated all their efforts to encounter Islam, Iran's Islamic Revolution and the country's Islamic establishment.

"Enemy has today targeted our country and revolution politically, economically and culturally. Patience and tolerance are the only way to solve problems and foil the enemy plot," he noted.