March 30, 2003	Sunday	Muharram 26, 1424

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TEHRAN, March 29: Iran on Saturday branded as propaganda US warnings not to interfere in the war in Iraq, and reiterated its neutrality on a “meaningless” conflict.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Friday that armed Iranian “proxies” gathered inside Iraq would be treated as combatants if they interfered with US forces.

“Rumsfeld is making propaganda to cover up his lack of success in this war,” Iranian government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh said. “We won’t go into this meaningless war, neither for or against either side.”

Mr Rumsfeld was referring to the alleged presence of elements of the Badr Brigade, the armed wing of the Tehran-based Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SICRI), which is made up of Shia Iraqi exiles.

“The Badr Brigade’s decisions have nothing to do with Iran. They are independent, like any other Iraqi opposition group,” Ramazanzadeh said.

A political analyst cautioned not to read too much into the US defence secretary’s remarks.

“Maybe he did not want to single out the Syrians,” he said.

Mr Rumsfeld sent a twin warning to Syria and Iran, but singled out Syria for direct accusations that it was shipping military supplies to Iraq. Syria dismissed the allegations.

Since US-led forces invaded Iraq on March 20 — and even after apparently stray missiles landed on its territory — Iran has stuck to a cautious, neutral tone.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei did compare the US-led attack on Iraq to “a new form of Hitlerism”, but political analysts said that shot at the “Great Satan” was mainly aimed at a domestic audience.

Summing up the opinion of many in Iran, Revolutionary Guards head Yahya Rahim Safawi on Friday called US President George Bush “a global dictator” and Saddam “a regional dictator”.

“Iran is probably pleased to see the difficulties Americans are facing in Iraq, thinking maybe they’ll have second thoughts about going after other countries,” said the analyst.

Iran said this week it would bar armed Shia Iraqi exiles based on its soil from returning to Iraq to join the war against Baghdad.—Reuters