TEHRAN -- Iran on Friday stressed that it never wants the U.S. to succeed in the Iraq war, cautioning that it considers the U.S. as more threatening than Iraq.

Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said the Islamic Republic is strongly against the ongoing war on Iraq, and voiced concern that the threats posed by the U.S. to Iran are far greater than those by Saddam and the Baathist regime of Iraq.

"We never want the U.S. to become victorious over Iraq, because the U.S. is more dangerous (to us) than Iraq, as is a viper to a scorpion and a pit to a hole," he said in an address to Tehran Friday prayers as quoted by IRNA. "This is our ideological position and our political experience."

Rafsanjani said Iran is neutral in the Iraq crisis from the military point of view, and that Tehran will not side with any of the conflicting parties.

However, he stressed, this never means that Iran will be indifferent toward the harm that are inflicted on the Iraqi nation as a result of the U.S. war.

"No one can say Iran supports Iraq... on the other hand, we cannot be indifferent toward the fate of the Iraqi people and will defend them and their interests as far as possible," Rafsanjani said.

The former president of Iran further called on the U.S. and Britain not to harm the Shiite Muslim shrines in Iraq's holy cities, warning them of "heavenly revenge".

Rafsanjani said the Shiites will never accept any insult to their sanctities and to provoke their sentiments, and cautioned that the Shiites as history has showed will humiliate the oppressors.

He said the "U.S. dream castle of dignity" will be eventually ruined, and that Washington's hegemonic aspirations will trigger independent movements and will also develop terrorism.

Rafsanjani recalled the remarks by Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak that the war against Iraq would create "a hundred Bin Ladens" as a prudent political comment, stressing that the hatred which is resulted from the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq would encourage the people to become terrorists.

He further said the U.S. would never become victorious in the war against Iraq, warning that "many complicities" await the Americans after the war is over.

"The result of the U.S.-led war on Iraq is no longer a victory... it would merely be the defeat of the Baathist regime, and the occupation of Iraq in real terms will never happen from now on," Rafsanjani said. "Still, whether the Iraqi regime is removed or not, a very difficult future is awaiting the Americans for they have got bogged down in a quagmire from which they cannot easily get out."

Rafsanjani said the U.S. anti-Iraq campaign will be "registered as a big strategic and historical mistake in the dossier of the U.S. Republicans".

Elsewhere in his remarks, the former president recalled the 23th anniversary of the U.S. breaking off diplomatic relations with Iran on April 7, stressing that Washington had broken the ground to freeze ties despite Iran's liking.

"We never wanted to break our ties (with the U.S.), but it was the U.S. leaders who always broke the ground," Rafsanjani said.

"Breaking ties has never been our policy... we used to think that there is still room to work on (our relations with the U.S.), and we still have the same belief... but it was always the U.S. officials who were guilty".

He recalled the U.S. support for the Iraqi regime to wage a war on Iran, their plotting military coups against the Iranian government, their acts of espionage through the "den of spies" (U.S. Embassy), and their economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic as the cases by means of which Washington had contributed to the deterioration of Iran-U.S. ties.

He said Iran has always been ready to start talks with the U.S. under equal conditions, and provided that Washington abandons its "anti-Islamic and colonial" policies in the region.

Still, Rafsanjani said, it is regrettable to see that the U.S. has never satisfied our prerequisite.