TigerHawk

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Iran

By Cardinalpark at 3/16/2006 02:46:00 PM

Well. One has to scratch the head and wonder what prompted this:

Tehran Says It Is Open
To Talks With U.S. on Iraq

Associated Press
March 16, 2006 12:25 p.m.

TEHRAN, Iran -- A top Iranian official said Thursday that his country was ready to open direct talks with the U.S. over Iraq, marking a major shift in Iranian foreign policy a day after an Iraqi leader called for such talks.

The White House said the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, is authorized to talk with Iran about Iraq, much as the U.S. has talked with Iran about issues relating to Afghanistan.

"But this is a very narrow mandate dealing specifically with issues relating to Iraq," presidential press secretary Scott McClellan said.

U.S. concerns about Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program are being dealt with at the United Nations. "That's a separate issue from this," Mr. McClellan said.

Ali Larijani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator and secretary of the country's Supreme National Security Council, also told reporters that any talks between the U.S. and Iran would deal only with Iraqi issues. "To resolve Iraqi issues and help establishment of an independent and free government in Iraq, we agree to [talks with the U.S.]," Mr. Larijani said after a closed meeting of the parliament Thursday.

But any direct dialogue between Tehran and Washington -- were it to happen -- could be a beginning for negotiations between the two foes to end the standoff over concerns Iran is seeking to develop atomic weapons. Tehran says its nuclear program is only aimed at generating electricity.

Mr. Larijani said Mr. Khalilzad repeatedly had invited Iran for talks on Iraq.

The statement marked the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that Iran had officially called for dialogue with the U.S., which it has repeatedly condemned as "the Great Satan." Washington has accused Iran of meddling in Iraq's affairs and of sending weapons and men to help insurgents in Iraq.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently said Iran's Revolutionary Guards had been assisting the smuggling of explosives and bomb-making material into Iraq. Tehran has denied the U.S. charges, saying the occupying forces were responsible for the instability in Iraq.

Predominantly Shiite Iran also has expressed grave concerns about the prospect of more violence in Iraq, where bloody sectarian fighting and reprisal killings have broken out in recent weeks. The proposal to hold direct talks on Iraq came in response to a request a day earlier from senior Iraqi Shiite leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim.

Mr. Hakim has close ties to Iran, and heads one of the main Shiite parties in Iraq, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. "I demand the leadership in Iran open a clear dialogue with America about Iraq," Mr. Hakim said. "It is in the interests of the Iraqi people that such dialogue is opened and to find an understanding on various issues."

Mr. Larijani said Iran will officially name negotiators for direct talks with the U.S. but declined to give further details. "These talks will merely be about resolving Iraqi issues," he told the parliament, without singling out any issues.

The U.S. broke diplomatic relations with Iran in 1979 after the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was seized by students to protest Washington's refusal to hand over Iran's former monarch to Iran for trial. Militant students held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

Tehran-Washington relations began thawing after the 1997 election of former President Mohammad Khatami, who called for cultural and athletic exchanges to help bring down the wall of mistrust between both countries.

But relations worsened after President Bush named Iran as part of an "axis of evil" and after the election of hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and growing differences over Iran's nuclear activities.

Iran has supported Afghanistan's reconstruction since the ouster of the Taliban in late 2001 by U.S.-led forces, and participated in the Bonn Process, the international agreement signed in Germany that mapped out Afghanistan's transition to democracy.