TEHRAN – The Iranian defense minister has said that with the death of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the United Sates has lost the pretext it was using to maintain military presence in the region.

“Now U.S. (troops) have no excuse to stay in the region and should leave the region as soon as possible,” Ahmad Vahidi told reporters in Tehran on Wednesday.
The United States invaded Afghanistan under the pretext of killing bin Laden, waged a war in Iraq and got Pakistan into a war under the same pretext, Vahidi added.
“The United States dragged three countries into war, killed over one million persons and according to the statistics spent (around) $1000 billion, imposed war on these countries for ten years and held these countries back.”
U.S. officials regard the killing of bin Laden as a victory, but if one studies the reports in detail, he will realize that this incident was a defeat for the United States, the defense minister noted.
“Can this action (the killing of Bin Laden) be called a victory? They inflicted heavy losses on certain countries to kill one single person.”
However, he said that the reports on the killing of bin Laden are “suspicious” and “there are many ambiguities and questions in this regard.”
“They (U.S. officials) said that they buried the body of bin Laden at sea. Why did they not allow an impartial inspector verify bin Laden’s identity?”
“The recent incidents indicate that U.S. officials have reached an impasse with regard to strategic issues” and are making attempts to find something, call it a victory, blow it out of proportion, and tell the world that they have become successful