Bush warns Iran to keep clear of Iraq

UNITED STATES: A US failure in Iraq would empower Iran and threaten world peace, President George W. Bush said Sunday, warning Tehran that if any Iranians are caught in Iraq "we will deal with them."

Bush's tough language during an interview with CBS television echoed his Vice President Dick Cheney, who earlier told Fox network Iran should "keep their folks at home" and not try to destabilize Iraq.

His decision last week to "surge" US forces in Iraq by 21,500 troops, Bush said, was reached after considering other options like "doing nothing" and getting out of Iraq, both of which he ruled out, he said, because "we'd have a crisis on our hands in Iraq."

"Failure in Iraq, would empower Iran, which poses a significant threat to world peace," Bush said in an interview aired on CBS's "60 Minutes" on Sunday.

Asked if he agreed with US military officers that Iranian agents were killing US troops in Iraq, Bush said: "I think what they're saying ... is that the Iranians are providing equipment that is killing Americans, and therefore, either way its' unacceptable."

And to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bush offered a warning: "If we catch your people inside (Iraq) harming US citizens or Iraqi citizens you know we will deal with them."

Bush's tough line on Iran came as US forces in Iraq held five Iranians who were detained in the north of the country last week, accused by the United States of being linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Iran insists the detainees are all consular officials.

Slammed for deciding to increase troop levels in Iraq against the advice of generals and some lawmakers in his own party, Bush said he did not see himself as stubborn.

"I think I'm a flexible open minded person. I really do," Bush said. "Take this policy. I spent a lot of time listening to a lot of people."

In the face of widespread opposition to his new Iraq strategy, Bush said he would press ahead. "I m not gonna change my principles ... I'm not going to try to be popular and change my principles to do so." Asked about his push for war in Iraq on the premise Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, which have never been found since the US-led invasion in 2003, Bush said he may have been wrong but not dishonest.

"Oh absolutely," he told CBS. "Everybody was wrong on weapons of mass destruction and there was an intelligence failure ... but I was as surprised as anybody he didn't have them."

Earlier The United States accused five Iranians it arrested in Iraq of running arms and money to Iraqi militants as Iraq joined Iran in calling for the men's release.

Washington also told Arab allies it would do more to contain Tehran.

With U.S. forces preparing a big push to avert civil war in Baghdad, Vice President Dick Cheney urged Americans to have the "stomach" to see through a campaign with global ramifications and Iraq's president sought help from another U.S. foe, Syria.

Three days after it stormed an Iranian government office in the Iraqi Kurdish capital Arbil, the U.S. military said five men it seized had ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard-Qods Force "known for providing funds, weapons, improvised explosive device technology and training to extremist groups attempting to destabilise the government of Iraq and attack Coalition forces".

Washington, Baghdad, Monday, AFP, Reuters.