Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday that US President George W. Bush had been defeated in his Middle East plans and would one day stand trial for "atrocities" committed in Iraq.
Khamenei's withering personal attack on the US president in a Tehran prayer sermon to mark the onset of the Muslim holy month of Ramazan came one day after Bush once again accused Iran of undermining the Iraqi government.
"I have a firm belief that one day this current US president and the American officials will be tried in a fair international court for the atrocities committed in Iraq," he said. "They have to be held accountable. The United States cannot ignore its responsibility," Khamenei told worshippers, who punctuated his sermon with shouts of "Death to America".
"The situation will not remain like this. One day it was Hitler, then it was the turn of Saddam," he said. Khamenei accused the United States of invading Iraq in 2003 to execute a plan to create a Middle East that would be "based around" Iran's arch enemy Israel and aimed at weakening the region's Islamic system.
"The Americans were defeated in their aims in the Middle East and were defeated in their ultimate aim for the Islamic Republic of Iran. "The Middle East plan was not achieved and they did not touch the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said.