Iran and the United States will hold talks in Baghdad aimed at
establishing security in Iraq, Iran's Foreign Ministry said
yesterday.
The US responded by repeating its willingness to hold talks with
Iran as long as they are limited to Iraq.
The timing of the talks was unclear, with the official IRNA news
agency at first saying they would be next week but later reporting
the date would become clear by Friday.
Talks are rare between Iran and the US, which accuses Teheran
both of backing Shi'ite militia in Iraq and seeking an atomic bomb
a charge Iran denies. The two states have had no diplomatic ties
for more than a quarter of a century.
"With the aim of easing the pain of the Iraqi people, supporting
the Iraqi government and strengthening security in Iraq... Iran
will talk with the American side in Baghdad," IRNA quoted Foreign
Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini as saying.
Hosseini's office confirmed his comments, but IRNA also quoted
Hosseini as saying: "The place of talks is definitely Iraq. The
exact date and level of the negotiating team will become clear by
Friday."
A spokeswoman for US Vice-President Dick Cheney said several US
officials had expressed willingness to discuss Iraq and made clear
that would be at ambassadorial level.
"We are willing to have that conversation, focused on Iraq, at
that level. That has not changed," said Lea Anne McBride, a
spokeswoman for Cheney, who was in Cairo meeting Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak as part of a Middle East trip.
Iran denies backing the insurgency in Iraq and accuses
Washington of igniting tensions between Iraq's Shi'ite and Sunni
Muslims. Analysts say Washington and Teheran are both concerned
about worsening violence, pushing them to agree to meet.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice exchanged pleasantries at a lunch on the
sidelines of a conference in Egypt this month on efforts to
stabilize Iraq but held no substantive discussions.
(China Daily May 14, 2007)
