From The Times
March 4, 2008

Commentary: Iraq ripe for Iranian domination



Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Nuri al-Maliki hold a joint press conference

Richard Beeston, Foreign Editor of The Times

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was right to look smug at the end of his two-day state visit to Iraq. Not only did he become the first Iranian president to visit Baghdad, but he also took a big step towards achieving the victory that had eluded Ayatollah Khomeini, the father of the Iranian revolution.

Twenty years ago the Ayatollah conceded defeat after his country was fought to a standstill in the bloody trenches of the Iran-Iraq battlefield. After the deaths of one million people over eight years of combat, he compared giving up the struggle to drinking “poisonâ€