TEHRAN, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- Iran Sunday said it is relieved at the arrest of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and it shares the "jubilation of the Iraqi people on this occasion."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told the official Islamic Republic News Agency IRNA Saddam's arrest will "contribute to healing the wounds of the Iranian people, especially the families of the martyrs and wounded of the imposed war," in reference to the bloody 1980-88 Iran-Iraq conflict that left a million people dead on both sides.
An Iranian student group said the arrest means there is no further reason for the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
Hamid Reza Asefi added that putting the former Iraqi president, captured by U.S. forces near his hometown of Tikrit Saturday night, on a public trial "could retrieve some of the lost rights" of the Iraqi people.
