Iran has 'schizophrenic' Iran policy: US envoy

BAGHDAD: Iran has a "schizophrenic" policy towards Iraq by both supporting the government and aiding militia extremists, the outgoing US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said on Sunday.   

"I believe that Iran has schizophrenic policy or a mixed" policy towards Iraq, Khalilzad told a pair of Western reporters in an interview.   

Despite Iranian support for the overthrow of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, he said he was convinced Shiite Iran is playing a role in helping the militias in Iraq, now engulfed by deadly Shiite-Sunni sectarian conflict.   

"On one hand it has welcomed the change and expressed support to the government in Iraq, but on the other hand there has been clear evidence to my satisfaction and I look at these things very carefully... of support for militias, for extremist groups in terms of weapons, training and money."   

Iran is "supportive about the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime, supportive of the democracy project in Iraq because it believes that (the) majority here being Shiites that is good, but at the same time its policy has been to cause failure of coalition and put coalition under pressure."   

"It has worked against the interests of majority in the government in that sense because the coalition now here is at the request if you like of the government and under the UN mandate," Khalilzad said.   

Washington regularly accuses Iran of training and funding Shiite militias in the current sectarian Sunni-Shiite conflict in Iraq that has killed tens of thousands of people since the US-led invasion four years ago.