AMMAN, Jordan, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Shiite Iran and Iraqi Sunnis denounced the new U.S. strategy in Iraq as an attempt to prolong military occupation that will only incite further violence.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini described President George W. Bush's strategy, which he outlined in a speech Wednesday, as part of "American efforts to continue the occupation of (Iraq)."
He said the strategy, in which the president said he'd send some 20,000 additional troops to Iraq, was an "inappropriate gift that Bush presented to the American people at the start of the New Year."
The official Iranian news agency quoted Hosseini as saying that increasing the number of U.S. troops means raising insecurity and tension in Iraq, which he stressed will not help solve the country's problems.
The spokesman added that Washington is seeking to "cover up its wrong policies" by accusing other countries of interfering in Iraq's affairs. He was apparently referring to the part in Bush's speech that Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops.
"The only way to get America out of its problems in Iraq is to get its forces out of that country as quickly as possible," Hosseini said.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Bashar al-Faidi, the official spokesman for Iraq's Islamic Scholars Association, the country's only Sunni religious authority, said Bush's declared plan will only consolidate sectarian violence and expected increased fighting.
He told United Press International in the Jordanian capital, Amman, the Bush strategy "consolidates the ethnic and sectarian genocide currently taking place in Iraq," adding that 140,000 existing U.S. troops in Iraq have failed to restore security in the country and 20,000 more will not succeed either.
