Tehran Friday Prayers leader: Bush's tour of ME in vain

Interim Friday prayers leader of Tehran Ayatollah Sayyed Ahmad Khatami said Friday that the US President George W. Bush's tour of Middle East will be futile.

Khatami said in his second sermon to this week's Friday prayers congregation, "The visit has one undeclared goal: Regaining lost prestige of his defeated party, the Republican party. Of course in our view, both the Republican and Democrat parties are in the same end and secure the interests of Zionists."

He said one of the declared goals of Bush's tour of the region had been efforts to promote the so-called Arab-Israel peace talks.

"The US State Secretary came to the region but failed to do any thing. The US Defense Secretary came to the region without any ability to do anything. They organized the Annapolis Conference but to no avail. Bush too should rest assured that would return from the visit without any success. The demonstrations, staged in occupied Palestine and elsewhere against Bush, showed that the visit under the said goal is failed."

The major cleric said the second goal of Bush in visiting the region had been to pose Iran as a threat, i.e. describing Iran as a threat to its neighbors. "This is also another lie raised repeatedly by Bush and his allies but thanks Almighty no one is ready to hear it. Our neighbors do know that a powerful Iran is their best friend and it would be to their best interest to be friends of powerful Iran."

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ayatollah Khatami said what happened in Hormuz Strait over the past few days was in line with the US attempt to portray Iran as a threat.

He said that he hoped some Arab states would be wise enough not to let a bankrupt and helpless president decide their fate in the last year of his government. Just one more year remains of Bush's presidency and he is at the end of the line, he added.

He also condemned Bush for supporting Israelis, who impudently kill people and commit crimes stressing that Bush is an accomplice in massacre of people in Lebanon and Palestine.

Pointing to crisis in Lebanon over election of a president, Ayatollah Khatami said the US is also responsible for the problem in Lebanon.

He said that unfortunately, the US and its Lebanese puppets and the unpopular government have thus far foiled all the peace efforts there.

He said Islamic Iran wants a tension free, developed, prosperous and jubilant Lebanon on the international level.