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Iran offers to enter Iraq talks with U.S.
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-17 09:27
Iran offered Thursday to enter into talks with the United States aimed at
stabilizing Iraq, the first time the Islamic republic has agreed to negotiate
with the superpower it calls the "Great Satan."
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| White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan briefs reporters at the
White House, Thursday, March 16, 2006, in Washington. The Bush
administration is signaling it's open to talks with Iran about neighboring
Iraqwithin limits. McClellan said any discussions must be restricted to
Iraqand not include other thorny issues, like Tehran's suspected nuclear
weapons program. [AP] |
The offer appears to reflect the desire of at least some top Iranian
officials to relieve Western pressure over Tehran's nuclear program in return
for help on Iraq, which is sliding ominously toward civil war.
The Bush administration said it would talk with Iran 錕斤拷 but only about Iraq,
not nuclear issues.
The White House said the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, is
already authorized to talk with Iran about Iraq.
"But this is a very narrow mandate dealing specifically with issues relating
to Iraq," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, adding that it did not
include U.S. concerns about Iran's nuclear program. "That's a separate issue."
The secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, told
reporters any talks between the United States and Iran would be limited to Iraqi
issues. Larijani, who is also Iran's top nuclear negotiator, said Khalilzad had
repeatedly invited Iran for talks on Iraq.
Despite the caveats, any direct dialogue between Tehran and Washington could
be the beginning of negotiations between the two foes over Iran's nuclear
program.
A Washington analyst on Iran, Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and
International Studies, said that while talks would not go further than Iraq,
their atmosphere "will spill over into every other area of contention between
the United States and Iran."
Washington accuses Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons and is leading a
campaign for U.N. Security Council action. Iran denies the allegation, but would
like to avoid any penalties from the U.N. body, which is expected to discuss
Iran's nuclear program this month.
In an effort to break an impasse over how to deal with Iran's suspect nuclear
program, the five veto-wielding nations on the Security Council and Germany will
meet in New York Monday, officials at the U.N. said.
Plans for the high-level negotiations underscored the urgency that Britain,
France and the United States feel about the Iran issue, and reflected just how
deep the divisions are between those three and China and Russia, which want only
mild Security Council action on Iran.
The United States also accuses Iran of meddling in Iraqi politics and of
sending weapons and men to support the insurgency.
"To resolve Iraqi issues, and to help the establishment of an independent and
free government in Iraq, we agree to (talks with the United States)," Larijani
told reporters after a closed meeting of parliament Thursday. He added that
negotiators would be appointed for the talks, but declined to give further
details.
His statement marked the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that
Iran had officially proposed dialogue with the United States.
Analyst Davoud Hermidas Bavand, a professor of international relations at
Tehran's Imam Sadeq University, said Larijani's call was a genuine offer that
could have significant consequences.
"This could be the beginning of a major breakthrough, ending more than two
and a half decades of estrangement between Tehran and Washington," Bavand said.
He said some clerics within the ruling establishment are convinced Iran will
be harmed by a head-on collision with the world over its nuclear activities.
How much support such views enjoy is unclear, but it is known that there are
clerics who disagree with the foreign policy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
who takes a hard line against dialogue with the United States.
Bavand said when Iran's nuclear program was reported to the U.N. Security
Council last month, Russia and China sent messages to Iran saying that if it
wanted a face-saving solution, it had to talk to America.
"Iran needs America to calm the growing tension over its nuclear program,"
Bavand said. At the same time, Washington wants to restore stability to Iraq,
"and Iran has sufficient weight and influence to help it out."
Another political analyst, Saeed Leylaz, also said Tehran would be prepared
to trade progress on Iraq with movement on the nuclear issue by Washington.
"Continued instability in Iraq is hampering America's plans for the Middle
East. Iran is ready to use its Iraq card to protect its nuclear achievements
before it is too late," Leylaz said.
The proposal to hold direct talks on Iraq came a day after the senior Iraqi
Shiite politician, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, called for Iran-U.S. talks.
"I demand the leadership in Iran to open a clear dialogue with America about
Iraq," said al-Hakim, who has close ties with Iran. "It is in the interests of
the Iraqi people that such dialogue is opened and reaches an understanding on
various issues."
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently accused Iranian Revolutionary
Guards of assisting the smuggling of explosives and bomb-making material into
Iraq.
Iran denied it, saying the occupying forces were responsible for the
instability in Iraq.
But Iran has expressed grave concern about the violence in Iraq, where
sectarian fighting and reprisal killings have escalated recently.
The United States 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 for trial. The militants 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."
Nevertheless, Iran supported the reconstruction process in Afghanistan after
U.S.-supported forces ousted the Taliban regime in late 2001. It also took part
in the international agreement signed in Germany that mapped out Afghanistan's
transition to democracy.
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