The State Department is always ready to appease...or surrender.
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U.S. ready for new direct talks with Iran on Iraq: State Dept.
By Matthew Lee
ASSOCIATED PRESS
7:46 a.m. July 17, 2007
WASHINGTON - The United States is ready to hold new direct talks with Iran
on the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, the State Department said
Tuesday. The Bush administration accused Tehran of supporting Shia
insurgents there.
"We think that given the situation in Iraq and given Iran's continued
behavior that is leading to further instability in Iraq, that it would be
appropriate to have another face-to-face meeting to directly convey to the
Iranian authorities that if they wish to see a more stable, secure, peaceful
Iraq, which is what they have said they would like to see, that they need to
change their behavior," spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
"They need to stop supporting sectarian militias that are exacerbating
sectarian tensions, they need to stop supporting EFP networks that pose a
threat to our troops," he said, referring to Explosively Formed Penetrators,
devices crafted to penetrate armored vehicles that Washington claims are
being sent to insurgents by Iran.
"It is important to directly convey to the Iranian government the importance
of their changing their behavior, not only for the safety of our troops, but
also for the future of Iraq," McCormack said.
He said a date for the talks had yet to be arranged but suggested that
discussions were under way on setting a time for the meeting, which would be
the first between the two arch-foes since late May when U.S. ambassador to
Iraq, Ryan Crocker, met Iranian officials in Baghdad.
That May 28 meeting marked a break in a 27-year diplomatic freeze and was
expected to have been followed within a month by a second encounter. But
since then, bitterness has mounted as U.S. officials have stepped up
allegations of Iranian involvement in the Iraq insurgency.
Tensions have also risen over Tehran's detention of four Iranian-American
scholars and activists charged with endangering national security. The U.S.
has demanded their release, saying the charges against them are false.
At the same time, Iran has called for the release of five Iranians detained
in Iraq, whom the United States has said are the operations chief and other
members of Iran s elite Quds Force, which is accused of arming and training
Iraqi militants. Iran says the five are diplomats in Iraq with permission of
the government.
Until Tuesday the United States had resisted another round of talks despite
entreaties from the Iraqi government and Iranian hints at their willingness
to sit down.
Earlier Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran was
willing to hold a second round of talks with the United States over
stabilizing Iraq in the near future if Washington officially asks for one.
"We look positively at holding a second round of talks. There exists a
possibility to hold such talks in the near future," Mottaki told a news
conference in Tehran. However, he said the U.S. had not yet made such a
request through official channels.
The Iraqi government, which is backed by the U.S. but closely allied to
Iran, has been trying to get the two sides together, hoping some cooperation
will reduce violence in the wartorn country.
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Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20070717-0746-us-iraniraq.html
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