WORLD / Middle East
US, Iranian envoys meet in Baghdad
(AP)
Updated: 2007-07-25 07:04
BAGHDAD - The American ambassador scolded his Iranian counterpart in a
groundbreaking meeting Tuesday for Tehran's alleged arming and training
of Shiite militias. But he agreed to set up a subcommittee with Iran and
Iraq to work on stabilizing the country.
South of Baghdad, a suicide tow truck driver killed at least 24 people
with a huge bomb in the Shiite city of Hillah. Police and morgue
officials said a total of 58 people, including the Hillah victims, were
killed or found dead nationwide.
Speaking to reporters after a second session in two months with the
Iranian envoy, Ambassador Ryan Crocker called the seven-hour meeting
"full and frank," diplomatic language for difficult.
The Bush administration does not appear to expect much if anything from
the talks but seems willing to go forward with them because the
high-powered and bipartisan Iraq Study Group, in a report late last year,
recommended contacts with both Iran and Syria in a bid to end or
ameliorate outside influences in Iraq as part of a plan to end the
conflict.
For its part, Iran appears to be enjoying the spectacle and prestige of
negotiating with world's only superpower after more than a
quarter-century freeze in open diplomatic contact.
"We discussed ways forward, and one of the issues we discussed was the
formation of a security subcommittee that would address at an expert or
technical level some issues relating to security, be that support for
violent militias, al-Qaida or border security," Crocker said.
But he warned progress was impossible until Iran matches its behavior on
the ground with its declarations backing an independent and stable Iraq.
"The fact is, as we made very clear in today's talks, that over the
roughly two months since our last meeting we've actually seen
militia-related activity that could be attributed to Iranian support go
up and not down," Crocker said, citing testimony from detainees and
confiscated weapons and ammunition as evidence.
"We made it clear to the Iranians that we know what they're doing (and)
it's up to them to decide what they want to do about it," he said.
In a later conference call with reporters in Washington, Crocker said
portions of the long exchange were heated.
"I would not describe this as a shouting match throughout, but we were
real clear on what our problems with their behavior was, and I just
didn't hesitate to let them know," Crocker said.
Crocker said he expected the session to be testy, given the extensive
list of U.S. complaints and the overall difficulty of the relationship.
"We've got a lot of problems with the Iranians, and face to face we're
not going to pull any punches," Crocker said.
In a separate news conference after the talks, Iranian Ambassador Hassan
Kazemi Qomi countered that Tehran was helping Iraq deal with the security
situation but Iraqis were "victimized by terror and the presence of
foreign forces" on their territory.
He said his delegation also demanded the release of five Iranians
detained by U.S. forces in Iraq. The United States claims the five were
linked to Iran's elite Quds Force, which Washington accuses of arming and
training Iraqi militants. Iran says the five are diplomats who were
legally in Iraq.
"There are also Iranian citizens who have been detained on legally
entering Iraq," Qomi said. "We demanded their release too. We discussed
the creation of a mechanism to implement what we achieved in the first
round of talks. They (the Americans) acknowledged making mistakes and
this is a step forward in itself and it's now up to the Americans to
rectify their mistakes."
He did not say what those mistakes were.
Qomi told The Associated Press that 20 to 30 other Iranian citizens were
in U.S. custody.
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.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, who chaired the meeting, said
experts would meet as early as Wednesday to work out the structure and
mechanism of the committee.
"We hope that the next round of talks will be on a higher level if
progress is made," he said at the news conference.
The meeting, held in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's offices, was a rare
face-to-face discussion for U.S. and Iranian representatives, whose
nations have been estranged for nearly three decades.
The session was only the second of its type �� a formal, direct meeting
between high-level representatives of each nation that was revealed
publicly in advance. Other publicly known contacts have been more
casually arranged on the sidelines of larger international gatherings, or
by happenstance. That was the case when then-Secretary of State Colin
Powell dined beside his Iranian counterpart at a 2004 diplomatic dinner.
U.S. and Iranian envoys also met several times to discuss cooperation in
securing Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.
Al-Maliki opened Tuesday's meeting, issuing an impassioned appeal for
help from the two nations to stabilize Iraq and warning that militants
from al-Qaida and other terror groups in Iraq were now fleeing and
finding refuge elsewhere.
"We are hoping that you support stability in Iraq, an Iraq that doesn't
interfere in the affairs of others nor wants anyone to meddle in its own
affairs," he said, according to excerpts of al-Maliki's remarks released
by his office.
"It's Iraq's right to call on everyone to stand beside it to counter the
scourge of terror and extremism," he said. "The world ... must stand
together and face this dangerous phenomenon and its evils, which have
gone beyond the borders of Iraq after terror and al-Qaida groups received
strong blows and are now running away from the fight and moving to other
nations."
The Hillah bomber struck at 9 a.m., according to provincial police, who
said the driver of the tow truck detonated his payload in the middle of
the Bab al-Mashhad district. Iraqi troops cordoned off the area while
fire engines and ambulances rushed in.
Most of the 24 killed and 69 wounded in the blast suffered serious burns,
said Ayad Abdul-Zahra of Hillah hospital.
Eassam Rashid, 32, was selling vegetables at his stall when the blast
sent shrapnel flying over his head.
"I heard a tremendous explosion followed by a fireball," he said. "Then
nearby cars were set ablaze one by one, and I saw four or five people
struggling to get out of their burning cars."
Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, has been the site of some of the
deadliest bombings, including a double suicide attack on March 6 that
killed 120 people.
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