Meeting With Iran Positive: US

May 28, 07:30 PM

Current Headlines: BAGHDAD: The United States yesterday described the two countries' most high-profile meeting in almost 30 years as positive but urged Iran to stop supporting militias in Iraq.

The meeting in Baghdad between the US and Iranian ambassadors to Iraq covered only sectarian violence in Iraq and did not touch on Iran's controversial nuclear program, the most contentious issue in bilateral relations.

The meeting, which began with a handshake, ended without any agreement on a date for further talks.

But it marked a shift in the US policy of shunning almost all contact with Iranian officials since Washington severed formal diplomatic ties with Teheran in 1980, 14 months after Iran's Islamic Revolution and five months after Americans were seized in a hostage crisis at the US embassy in Teheran.

"The talks proceeded positively. What we need to see is Iranian action on the ground," Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador to Iraq, told reporters. "Right now their actions are running at cross purposes to their stated policy."

There was no immediate comment from the Iranian team led by Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, Iran's ambassador to Iraq. Crocker and Kazemi- Qomi met at the Iraqi prime minister's office, and shook hands before sitting across the table from each other.

However, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the talks could lead to future meetings, but only if Washington admits its Middle East policy has not been successful.

"The two sides can be hopeful about the outcome of the negotiations if America develops a realistic view toward Monday's talks, admits its wrong policies in Iraq, decides to change them and accepts its responsibilities," he said in Teheran.

Crocker said: "I laid out before the Iranians a number of our direct, specific concerns about their behaviour in Iraq, their support for militias that are fighting both the Iraqi security forces and coalition forces.

"The fact (is) a lot of the explosives and ammunition used by these groups are coming in from Iran ... Such activities ... need to cease," he added.

Crocker said the Iranian delegation did not respond directly to the charges other than to express support for the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

He said the Iranians described the US presence in Iraq as an "occupation" and that US efforts to train Iraq's security forces to take over, eventually allowing a US troop withdrawal, were inadequate.

Crocker said he would take to Washington a suggestion by the Iranian delegation that a "trilateral mechanism" on Iraqi security be set up.

Direct talks between Washington and Teheran are a good start given the more than a quarter-century of diplomatic estrangement, Yin Gang, a research professor at the Institute of West Asian and Africa Studies affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told China Daily.

Some in Teheran have been lobbying against any contact with Washington, Yin said.

"It is unrealistic to expect the meeting to solve all problems. Washington's change in policy may help Teheran play a role in easing the situation in Iraq," said Yin.

"The meeting was at least an attempt to provide an atmosphere for serious and far-reaching discussion."

China Daily-Agencies

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