Hussein’s Capture Pleases Iran

TEHRAN — Denouncing Saddam Hussein as a “bloodthirsty wolf,” Iran’s supreme leader expressed relief at the ousted Iraqi dictator’s capture but said the world would also be better off without President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recalled that the United States ignored Tehran’s early warnings about Hussein and supported Iraq’s war against Iran in the 1980s, which killed a total of more than 1 million people.

“The same Americans who are against Saddam now, including the current secretary of defense, shook hands with him in Baghdad and supported him to put Iran under pressure,” Khamenei told Iranians gathered in Qazvin, northwest of Tehran.

He said he was relieved at the capture of “a bloodthirsty wolf in the shape of a human being.”

He added: “I heard the U.S. president has said the world is better without Saddam. I want to tell him that the world will be even better without Bush and Sharon.”