TEHRAN, July 2: The US pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme and warnings not to meddle in Iraq are the result of setbacks faced by Washington in post-Saddam Iraq, President Mohammad Khatami said on Wednesday.

“The increased pressure on Iran can be explained by the failures of the United States in Iraq,” he said at the end of a cabinet meeting, referring to a spate of deadly attacks on US occupying troops.

“The problems of the Americans and British have mounted in Iraq, even though the behaviour of the Iraqi Shiites is very reasonable,” he said, blaming “remnants of the former regime and certain extremist groups”.

Khatami said the answer was for the US-led coalition which ousted Saddam Hussein to “hand over power to the Iraqis, and they will see that the problems will be resolved”.

On the pressure for Iran to agree to a tougher regime of international inspections of its nuclear facilities, he said Iran was “ready to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency” (IAEA).

Tehran has “never had a negative attitude toward the new commitments being asked of Iran”, said Khatami.

The Iranians are a people “of dialogue and logic, but they do not accept force and so long as force is dominant, with or without an intermediary, nothing can be done”, he said.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei is to visit Tehran next week for fresh talks on Iran’s nuclear programme which the United States suspects is being used to develop atomic weapons.—AFP