Iranian Cleric Urges Iraqis to Expel U.S.

A leading Iranian cleric urged Iraqis to use suicide attacks to expel U.S. forces from their country and learn from Iran’s Islamic Revolution to set up a new government.

“The Iraqi people have reached the conclusion that they have no option but to launch an intifada [uprising] and resort to martyrdom operations to expel the United States from Iraq,” Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati told worshipers during Friday sermons in Tehran.

“Somebody -- who has might but not logic -- does not have dignity nor shame and doesn’t listen to anybody,” Jannati said, in an apparent reference to the Bush administration. His speech was broadcast live on Tehran radio.

Jannati, who heads Iran’s powerful Guardian Council, said Iraqis should learn from his nation’s 1979 Islamic Revolution to establish a Shiite Muslim-controlled government.

“I urge [Iraqis] to ... make nonstop efforts to expel the enemy from Iraq’s unsoiled land,” he said.