U.S. Agrees To New Talks With Iran On Iraq
The United States has accepted an Iraqi proposal to hold new talks with Iran about the security situation in Iraq, the State Department said Tuesday.
The as-yet unscheduled meeting would be the fourth round of talks between Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, and his Iranian counterpart. Two previous sessions ended inconclusively with Iran rejecting U.S. allegations that Iran is supporting Shia insurgent groups in Iraq by providing bombmaking material responsible for the deaths of American troops.
Amid a decline in attacks involving such devices, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Washington had responded favorably to a suggestion from the Iraqi government that it was now "the appropriate time" for another meeting at the ambassadorial level in Baghdad.
"We said 'yes,' that we would agree to that," he told reporters, adding that the United States had informed Iran of its acceptance through diplomatic channels that normally involve Swiss intermediaries.
"We have communicated to the Iranian government that we are agreeable to that," McCormack said. "We have not yet received back a reply, either directly or via the Iraqis."
"We are open to using this channel as a way of talking directly about important issues concerning security in Iraq. We don't yet have a date, and as soon as I am aware of a date, I'll try to convey that to you," he said.
Earlier Tuesday in Tehran, the state Iranian news agency IRNA reported that Iran also accepted the offer for new continued talks with the United States and that Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had welcomed the opportunity.
"Iran will give a positive response to this request," Mottaki was quoted as saying by IRNA, adding that the talks will be held "in the near future. These talks ... are held within the framework of helping Iraqi stability and security and its people."
Meanwhile, the Iraqi government welcomed the agreement by the U.S. and Iran, although it said no date has been set for the meeting.
"The Iraqi government hopes that the new round of talks among the three countries will be fruitful and yield tangible steps that lead to mutual understanding," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a brief statement.
He added that the meeting would help the security and stability of Iraq plus reduce tension in the region.
The developments came against a background of U.S. military reports that violence is down 55 percent in Iraq since a U.S.-Iraqi security operation began this summer.
Iran has long been accused by Washington of training, arming and funding Shiite extremists inside Iraq to kill American troops. But in recent weeks, U.S. officials have said Tehran appears to have halted the flow of arms across its border into Iraq.
Iran has denied the arms-funneling accusations, insisting that it is doing its best to help stabilize its embattled western neighbor.
Mottaki said Iran's consent for a fourth round of talks comes after Tehran received an official U.S. request for talks through the Swiss Embassy, which looks after American interests in Iran.
"These talks ... are held within the framework of helping Iraqi stability and security and its people," IRNA quoted Mottaki as saying.
"The Swiss Embassy in Tehran has handed over to Iran a message from the U.S. government for a new round of talks concerning Iraq," Mottaki said.
McCormack denied that the United States had proposed the meeting, but had responded to the Iraqi request through the Swiss.
Switzerland looks after U.S. interests in Tehran in the absence of formal diplomatic relations between Tehran and Washington, which were severed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and U.S. Embassy takeover by militants in Tehran. The Revolution toppled the pro-Western Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and installed a hard-line Islamic government.
Mottaki's comments came a day after Iran's hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, made a public appearance in Tehran with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. Both men are fierce critics of the Bush administration and regularly make statements deriding American foreign policy.
Chavez's visit came after a failed attempt by the firebrand duo to move OPEC away from pricing its oil in dollars.
OPEC's weekend summit displayed the limits of the oil producers' alliance - their proposal was overruled by other members, led by Saudi Arabia - but it also showed their potential for stirring up problems for the U.S. and its allies.
Making his fourth trip to Tehran in two years, Chavez has built a strong bond with Ahmadinejad that has produced a string of business agreements as well as a torrent of rhetoric presenting their two countries as an example of how smaller nations can stand up to the U.S.
"Here are two brother countries, united like a single fist," Chavez said upon his arrival in Tehran, according to Venezuela's state-run Bolivarian News Agency.
"God willing, with the fall of the dollar, the deviant U.S. imperialism will fall as soon as possible, too," said Chavez, seen at left, after a two-hour closed meeting with Ahmadinejad, the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported.
Meanwhile, an Iranian government spokesman said Tuesday that Tehran is going through with a contract to purchase Russian-made Tupolev planes.
It was the first official confirmation of Monday's reports from Moscow which said Iran had begun talks to buy 30 Tupolev passenger aircraft worth more than $1 billion.
"This contract is going to be implemented," Gholam Hossein Elham, the government spokesman, was quoted by IRNA as saying.
Iran's move is an apparent response to U.S. sanctions that affect the country's aviation industry.
Crocker and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Kazemi Qomi have held three rounds of talks in Baghdad since May on Iraqi but without much apparent headway.
The first round in May broke a 27-year diplomatic freeze between Iran and the United States. Crocker and Qomi agreed during their July talks to set up a security subcommittee to carry forward talks on restoring stability in Iraq.
The subcommittee met in August for the first time in Baghdad and agreed to meet again at a later date but no more information is available on the outcome of those talks.
Iran has also accused the U.S. of providing "support for veteran (militant) elements and giving terrorists a free hand in specific locations in Iraq."
Tehran insists that it supports Nouri al-Maliki's government to establish security and bring stability to Iraq, an apparent reference to the political crisis surrounding the Shiite leader.
Iran holds considerable sway in Iraq, where the majority of the population is also Shiite Muslim and where Shiite political parties have close ties to Tehran.