Iran rules out talks with U.S. over Iraq

影音王

Iran rules out talks with U.S. over Iraq  
Reuters, The Associated Press

FRIDAY, MAY 26, 2006


BAGHDAD The Iranian foreign minister rejected a U.S. offer of direct talks on Iraq during the first visit from a top Iranian official since the new Iraqi government was formed last week.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki accused the Bush administration of raising "other issues." He did not elaborate, but Washington and Tehran have been sparring over Iran's nuclear program and Tehran reportedly wants talks with Washington on that issue as well.

At a news conference in Baghdad on Friday with his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshiyar Zebari, Mottaki said: "We had decided to have direct talks on the issue of Iraq with the Americans."

He added: "Unfortunately, the American side tried to use this decision as propaganda and they raised some other issues. They tried to create a negative atmosphere and that's why the decision which was taken for the time being is suspended."

After meeting Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Mottaki also warned the United States it would face retaliation if it mounted any attack on Iran.

At another news conference with the speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, Mottaki said: "In the event that Americans attack Iran anywhere, Iran will respond with an attack in that place."

Mottaki, whose visit has spotlighted Shiite Iran's role in its U.S.-occupied neighbor, added that Tehran would act as the host of a regional meeting on Iraq but did not specify when.

He met Maliki less than a week after the Shiite leader formed a national unity government pledging to curb the violence that has shown no sign of abating. A bomb killed nine people in Baghdad on Friday.

The United States has no diplomatic relations with Iran. President George W. Bush has authorized his ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, to hold talks with Iran on what Washington says is meddling there by Tehran, but none have so far taken place, amid reports of divisions in the U.S. administration.

In April, Washington said talks with Iran were on hold as Iraq's government was being formed. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran also said last month that there was no need for such talks for the time being.

Mottaki's trip was the second such visit from Iran since U.S.-led forces overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003 and oversaw the election of an Iraqi Shiite Muslim leadership close to the Islamic Republic. Saddam's once-dominant Sunni Arab minority is suspicious of non-Arab Iran. Its leaders accuse Tehran of fomenting unrest in Iraq to shackle U.S. military power in the region and of coveting the oil reserves in the Shiite south. U.S. and British officials also accuse Iranian forces of providing bomb-making expertise and equipment to Iraqi insurgents.


In a sign of how relations between Iraq and Iran have improved since Saddam's downfall, Zebari said Tehran had the right to develop a peaceful nuclear program. "We believe in the wisdom of the Islamic Republic leadership in handling this subject and we are against any tension in the situation with the Islamic Republic," said Zebari, who is a Kurd.

The bomb in Baghdad, which was planted under a car, exploded at 10 a.m. in the Nahda area as the market that sells old furniture, household goods and appliances was packed with shoppers at the start of the Islamic holiday. Nine people were killed and 30 were wounded in the blast, a hospital security official said.

Another bomb exploded in a popular outdoor market in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Al Bayaa, wounding 13 civilians, the police said.

Elsewhere in the capital, a roadside bomb missed a U.S. convoy but wounded three Iraqis on a minibus in the upscale Mansour District, a police officer said.

The police also said that another roadside bomb hit a police patrol in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing one police officer and wounding four.

Meanwhile, to protest the killing of a Sunni imam, Wafiq al-Hamdani, Sunni leaders ordered the closure of all Sunni mosques in the southern city of Basra and urged preachers not to hold Friday prayers.

Italy will cut troop strength

Italy's military contingent in Iraq will be reduced by 1,100 troops sometime in June, Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Friday, hours after he met with the Prime Minister Romano Prodi to map out an exit strategy for the nation's soldiers, The Associated Press reported from Rome.

"In June we will reduce our troops from 2,700 to 1,600," D'Alema said on a television show. His remarks marked the first time the new government has mentioned actual figures about the planned pullout.

The decision to withdraw that many troops by June belonged to the previous government of Silvio Berlusconi. Prodi's new center-left government was merely staying with that plan for the time being, said the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Pasquale Terracciano. "The next steps have not been decided yet," he added.

BAGHDAD The Iranian foreign minister rejected a U.S. offer of direct talks on Iraq during the first visit from a top Iranian official since the new Iraqi government was formed last week.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki accused the Bush administration of raising "other issues." He did not elaborate, but Washington and Tehran have been sparring over Iran's nuclear program and Tehran reportedly wants talks with Washington on that issue as well.

At a news conference in Baghdad on Friday with his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshiyar Zebari, Mottaki said: "We had decided to have direct talks on the issue of Iraq with the Americans."

He added: "Unfortunately, the American side tried to use this decision as propaganda and they raised some other issues. They tried to create a negative atmosphere and that's why the decision which was taken for the time being is suspended."

After meeting Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Mottaki also warned the United States it would face retaliation if it mounted any attack on Iran.

At another news conference with the speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, Mottaki said: "In the event that Americans attack Iran anywhere, Iran will respond with an attack in that place."

Mottaki, whose visit has spotlighted Shiite Iran's role in its U.S.-occupied neighbor, added that Tehran would act as the host of a regional meeting on Iraq but did not specify when.

He met Maliki less than a week after the Shiite leader formed a national unity government pledging to curb the violence that has shown no sign of abating. A bomb killed nine people in Baghdad on Friday.

The United States has no diplomatic relations with Iran. President George W. Bush has authorized his ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, to hold talks with Iran on what Washington says is meddling there by Tehran, but none have so far taken place, amid reports of divisions in the U.S. administration.

In April, Washington said talks with Iran were on hold as Iraq's government was being formed. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran also said last month that there was no need for such talks for the time being.

Mottaki's trip was the second such visit from Iran since U.S.-led forces overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003 and oversaw the election of an Iraqi Shiite Muslim leadership close to the Islamic Republic. Saddam's once-dominant Sunni Arab minority is suspicious of non-Arab Iran. Its leaders accuse Tehran of fomenting unrest in Iraq to shackle U.S. military power in the region and of coveting the oil reserves in the Shiite south. U.S. and British officials also accuse Iranian forces of providing bomb-making expertise and equipment to Iraqi insurgents.

In a sign of how relations between Iraq and Iran have improved since Saddam's downfall, Zebari said Tehran had the right to develop a peaceful nuclear program. "We believe in the wisdom of the Islamic Republic leadership in handling this subject and we are against any tension in the situation with the Islamic Republic," said Zebari, who is a Kurd.

The bomb in Baghdad, which was planted under a car, exploded at 10 a.m. in the Nahda area as the market that sells old furniture, household goods and appliances was packed with shoppers at the start of the Islamic holiday. Nine people were killed and 30 were wounded in the blast, a hospital security official said.

Another bomb exploded in a popular outdoor market in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Al Bayaa, wounding 13 civilians, the police said.

Elsewhere in the capital, a roadside bomb missed a U.S. convoy but wounded three Iraqis on a minibus in the upscale Mansour District, a police officer said.

The police also said that another roadside bomb hit a police patrol in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing one police officer and wounding four.

Meanwhile, to protest the killing of a Sunni imam, Wafiq al-Hamdani, Sunni leaders ordered the closure of all Sunni mosques in the southern city of Basra and urged preachers not to hold Friday prayers.

Italy will cut troop strength

Italy's military contingent in Iraq will be reduced by 1,100 troops sometime in June, Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Friday, hours after he met with the Prime Minister Romano Prodi to map out an exit strategy for the nation's soldiers, The Associated Press reported from Rome.

"In June we will reduce our troops from 2,700 to 1,600," D'Alema said on a television show. His remarks marked the first time the new government has mentioned actual figures about the planned pullout.

The decision to withdraw that many troops by June belonged to the previous government of Silvio Berlusconi. Prodi's new center-left government was merely staying with that plan for the time being, said the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Pasquale Terracciano. "The next steps have not been decided yet," he added.