Mottaki: Iran not insisting on talk with the US on Iraq
Iraq-Iran-USA, Politics, 3/18/2008

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said yesterday that Iran has not made any demand for talks with the US on Iraq's security.

Making the remark at a joint news conference with his Swiss counterpart Micheline Calmy-Rey, Mottaki noted that the previous talks were held in response to demands of the US and Iraq.

The American side should explain why it was absent at the latest meeting in Baghdad, he argued.

Pointing to his negotiations with the visiting Swiss foreign minister, he said that they exchanged views on issues of mutual interests as well as regional issues pertaining to Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine.

In the meeting, they also conferred issues related to human rights, minorities in Europe, and the current concerns about Islamophobia and sacrilege to Islamic sanctities.

Iranian National Gas Company and two Swiss companies signed an important gas deal, he added. The Swiss foreign minister, for her part, responded to a question on her country's stance on cooperation between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), saying that Switzerland thanks Tehran for its current cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog and encourages it to expedite such a trend.

Previous Stories:
  Iraq urges resumption of Iran-US talks on Iraq   (3/5/2008)
  US commander: No hostile act from Iran observed in Iraq   (2/12/2008)

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