On the Iran-US meeting for Iraq's security
Iraq-Iran-USA, Politics, 5/28/2007

Iran and the US held their first round of official talks on Iraq behind the closed doors.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Iraqi Supreme National Security advisor Mowafaq al-Rabi'i attended the meeting.

Talking to reporters, al-Maliki said Iraq not only hosts the meeting but also plays a determining role in its success.

The US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and Iranian Ambassador to Baghdad Hassan Kazemi Qomi met on Monday at the home of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki for the first official and direct talks in the past 27 years.

The Iranian delegation includes director of Mideast Department of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Reza Amiri Moqaddam, head of Foreign Ministry special headquarters for Iraq Hossein Amir Abdollahian, and head of the delegation Kazemi Qomi.

Iraq and it's stability was top on the agenda. Iran's Ambassador to Iraq today hoped that Iran-US talks would contribute to Iraqi national sovereignty.

The ambassador lauded the Iraqi government for endeavoring to restore law and order in the country and voiced Iran's support for the Iraqi government and nation on various political, economic and security fields.

As a neighboring state with Iraq with deeply rooted cultural and historical commonalties and long common borders, Iran respects the country's territorial integrity and call for restoration of stability and security of the country, he said.

He said that Iran which suffered huge material and spiritual losses during eight years of US-backed Saddam Hussein invasion, always supports the Iraqi nation and hosted about two millions Iraqi refugees.

Kazemi Qomi said that Iran always supports formation of democratic Iraq where all sectarian and religious minorities play an active role in the country's reconstruction. "Why the Iraqi police and the country's security forces suffer lack of equipment and the terrorists would have an upper hand to this end?," he asked.

He said that Iran calls for maintaining national unity, territorial integrity, democracy, co-existence among all ethnic and sectarian groups which would lead to Iraqi national sovereignty. "Now that the country has suffered from a prolonged occupation and the immoral acts of occupiers and rampant insecurity caused by terrorists and brought total destruction to the country's
infrastructure, the Islamic Republic of Iran feels duty-bound to fully support the democratic government of Iraq and hope that the current meeting would put an end to the country's insecurity and help the country's reconstruction."

Iraqi, Iranian and U.S. officials found "broad agreement" on overall policy and principles regarding "support for a secure, stable, democratic, federal Iraq, in control of its own security, at peace with its neighbors," Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, said following the meeting.

He told reporters that the Iranian government’s actions to provide arms and explosives to the insurgency in Iraq contradicts Iran's own stated policy of supporting a stable, secure and peaceful Iraq.

"We all are pretty much in the same place in terms of declaratory policy," Crocker said. "The problem lies, in our view, with the Iranians not bringing their behavior on the ground into line with their own policy."

Crocker said he made clear to the Iranians that the United States had "solid evidence" linking Iran to attacks by armed militant groups in Iraq on U.S. and Iraqi soldiers as well as innocent Iraqi civilians.

The evidence points to Iranian deliveries of armaments to radical Sunni as well as Shiite groups, primarily through the al-Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, according to Crocker.

"We made it clear that we know what they're doing and that these attacks need to stop," he added.

"I was somewhat encouraged that Iran laid out its policy in positive terms," Crocker said, while reiterating that what really counts is what happens on the ground to improve Iraqi security.

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said today that the occupying powers are required to announce pullout timetable to stop bloodbath in Iraq. "We believe that the best way to put an end to alarming bloodbath in Iraq and spread of violence to the neighboring countries is that the occupying forces leave the country and let the Iraqi government and its nation restore national security," he said.

Iran calls for restoration of national unity and independence of Iraq and believes that it should help restore security and tranquility as part of its religious and humanitarian responsibilities.
Iran strongly opposes to any sectarian violence or religious conflicts in Iraq, Mottaki said.

"Unfortunately, the wrong policies of the occupiers have left lethal consequences in Iraq," he said.
"We believe that withdrawal of occupying powers from Iraq and collective assistance of neighboring countries to Iraqi democratic government would put an end to the current human losses," he said.
He said that political stability, security and economic development of the countries in the region have ties with the culture, religion and geopolitical situation of the Persian Gulf countries.
Any instability and insecurity would foment extensive consequences on other states, he added.

Mottaki on Saturday said that "The sides can be hopeful about following up negotiations if the US has a realistic view to Monday talks, admits its wrong policies in Iraq, decides to change them and respects its responsibilities." Mottaki reaffirmed Iranian commitment to have successful talks with US to help the Iraqi government and nation.

Meantime, Iran's Embassy in Baghdad on Friday denied a report by Al-Arabiya satellite channel allegedly linking recent blasts in Iraq's Kurdistan with Iranian diplomats detained by US forces.
Al-Arabiya, quoting Iraq's Kurdistan officials, claimed that an Iraqi Shia, recently arrested by Kurdistan's security officials, had confessed to being connected with the five
Iranian diplomats -detained by the US in Iraqi city of Erbil on January 11- and implicated them in the recent blasts in Kurdistan.

"Stressing the deep-rooted and friendly ties between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Kurds in north of Iraq, we consider as biased the fake report released by Al-Arabiya about the confession of an Iraqi Shiite who implicated Iranian diplomats arrested in Erbil in the recent explosions in Iraq's Kurdistan," said the embassy in a statement. "Such reports are fabricated by enemies of the two nations to damage Iran's relations with all ethnic and religious groups in Iraq," it added.

Previous Stories:
  Iran - US talks on Iraq can have positive impact on region   (5/21/2007)
  Iran wants Iraqi government to have more authorities: Hosseini   (5/21/2007)
  US - Iran to hold talks on Iraq   (5/15/2007)

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