New York: Sharply criticising the US, former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has charged that it was the American "conceit" and "arrogance" that led to the current "mess" in Iraq which has become a "centrestage of extremism and radicalism."
However, he distanced himself from many of the hardline views of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but warned the US and Israel against any strikes, saying it would cost heavily.
Khatami, in an interview to Time magazine, endorsed the two-state solution to achieve peace between Israel and Palestinians and called Holocaust a "historical fact."
Replying to a question, he said removal of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein from power has been proved to be of benefit to Iran.
"I also predicted that getting into Iraq would be very easy (for America), but getting out of it would be extremely difficult. And today, Saddam is gone but Iraq has become the centrestage of extremism and radicalism." Khatami said.
However, he rejected the suggestion that Iraq is now witnessing a civil war and also strongly opposed the idea of partitioning Iraq in three parts; Shia, Sunni and Kurd.
"Definitely a bad idea. Iraq should remain unified. The solution is a democratic state. Numerically, the country is majority Shiite, but the government is not yet sectarian. The President is a Kurd. The head of the government is a Shiite. The Sunnis have great, effective participation.
So the breakup of Iraq is very dangerous. A democratic state can prevent this from taking place," he added.
"We could have resolved Iraq issue without invasion and occupation without the cost in terms of human life, American lives, Iraqi lives and money. If US had not had such a sense of conceit and pride or maybe arrogance," Khatami said.
Iraq could have been spared of the current "mess,” he added.
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