U.S., Iranian ambassadors hold talks By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer

U.S., Iranian ambassadors hold talks By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 31 minutes ago



BAGHDAD - The U.S. and Iranian ambassadors to Iraq met Monday for their third round of security talks in just over two months, a U.S. official said, despite renewed military claims that Tehran is fueling the violence.

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U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker met with his counterpart Hassan Kazemi Qomi for about two hours after U.S., Iraqi and Iranian experts held their first talks as part of a security subcommittee, according to the U.S. Embassy.

The high-level discussions were "frank and serious," embassy spokesman Philip Reeker said.

He said they were held at the office of Iraq's National Security Adviser Mouwaffak al-Rubaie but gave no further details.

Washington has accused Tehran of fueling the violence by arming and training Shiite extremists, but Crocker and Qomi agreed during their July 24 talks to set up a security subcommittee to carry forward talks on restoring stability in Iraq.

The subcommittee also met for the first time on Monday in Baghdad, with the three sides sitting around three conference tables at an Iraqi government office in the heavily fortified Green Zone. Reeker said the sides agreed to meet again at a later date.

The diplomatic activity came a day after the No. 2 U.S. military commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, blamed Iran for sharply increasing its support in providing weapons and training to rogue Shiite militiamen who he said had launched 73 percent of the attacks that killed or wounded American forces last month in Baghdad.

That was nearly double the figure six months earlier, Odierno said, adding he believes Iran is trying to influence public opinion ahead of a pivotal September report due to U.S. Congress on political and military progress in Iraq.

Tehran has consistently denied the U.S. allegations.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Crocker's meeting with his Iranian counterpart was a natural follow-up to the last talks between the two envoys and focused solely on Iraqi security issues.

"It was another frank, professional exchange about security issues in Iraq," he told reporters.

McCormack declined to say what might have prompted the meeting but noted that Crocker "has some latitude" to decide when to talk to his Iranian counterpart.

On Monday, the Iranian delegation criticized what it called America's "suspicious" security approach toward Iraq and called for "a change in the broad policies and approach of the U.S." in Iraq during the expert-level talks, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

The report, which did not mention the ambassadorial meeting, said the Iranians cited specific suspect cases but it did not elaborate.

IRNA also reported that the Iranian delegation enumerated the U.S. "support for veteran (militant) elements, giving terrorists a free hand in specific locations in Iraq" as well as the "weak points of the U.S. security-political plan in Iraq."

The agency said the Iranian delegation insisted on Tehran's support for Nouri al-Maliki's government to establish security and bring stability to Iraq, an apparent reference to the political crisis surrounding the Shiite leader.

Iran holds considerable sway in Iraq, where the majority of the population is also Shiite Muslim and where Shiite political parties have close ties to Tehran. Al-Maliki visits Iran Wednesday.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said, "We laid out our position in the first meeting very clearly to both sides and in the frankest clearest language that we don't want Iraq to be a battleground to settle scores ... at the cost of our security and stability," he said in a telephone interview.

The detention of four Iranian-Americans in Iran has deepened tensions between Washington and Tehran, whose relations were already strained over Iran's nuclear program and its support for radical militant groups like Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas and by U.S. military maneuvers in the Persian Gulf. Washington has called for their release and says the charges are false.

The embassy said Monday's discussions focused on the violence plaguing Iraq. The American delegation to the expert talks was led by the U.S. Embassy's counselor for political and military affairs Marcie B. Ries.

The meetings were welcomed by the fragile Iraqi government, which has called on both sides not to let their tensions disrupt efforts to bring stability to Iraq.

President Jalal Talabani expressed hope the experts meeting would "succeed in achieving security and stability in Iraq," his office said. "The president hopes that Iran will play a positive role in finding a way to achieve the ambitions of the Iraqi people."

The first round of Iran-U.S. talks, on May 28 in Baghdad, broke a 27-year diplomatic freeze following the 1979 Islamic Revolution and U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran.

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Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad and Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran contributed to this report.