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Iraq to hold talks on security crisis

Iraq's neighbors, including Iran and Syria, have agreed to join US and British representatives to discuss the Iraqi security crisis at a regional conference on March 10 in Baghdad, the government said.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Wednesday he would be issuing formal invitations shortly to the neighboring countries and the five permanent UN Security Council members -- the US, Britain, France, Russia and China -- to send deputy foreign ministers or senior officials to the conference.

Zebari, in a telephone interview from Sweden, said the Iranians agreed to participate in a meeting with the other neighbors but "they have some questions" about a separate session that would be held the same day with the five permanent council members.

His words seemed to indicate that Iran was at least partly unhappy with the arrangements for the conference, and weighing the extent of its own participation.

Iran has had little public comment on the conference so far. But in the past, Iranian leaders have been vocal in accusing the US of trying to use the UN as a way to "gang up" on it, and the presence of the key Security Council countries at the Iraq conference might give Iran pause.

For their part, Sunni Arab countries like Egypt still hold grave concerns about the direction taken by Iraq's Shiite-led government, raising concerns the conference will make little headway on key issues like security.

Iraq's relations with its neighbors have been rocky because of fears that the Shiite-led government is falling under Iran's influence. Originally, the Iraqi government had been reluctant to endorse the regional conference, fearing pressure from Sunni-dominated regimes, but it dropped those objections last year so long as the gathering was held on Iraqi soil.

Two Arab diplomats in Cairo said on Wednesday that the US recently increased pressure on some Arab governments to press them to attend the conference, after they initially had turned down invitations from the Iraqi government. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity.

The conference got a big boost on Tuesday when Washington said it would attend, leading to the possibility it could discuss Iraq's security with adversaries Syria and Iran.

The Bush administration had waited to embrace the idea until Iraq made progress on a deal governing national distribution of oil revenue. The difficulty in getting such a deal is symbolic of Iraq's regional, factional and political divisions, and the deal was seen by the US as a key marker of the government's will to work across divides.

"They thought the timing was right for them to hold the conference and so we encouraged them to move forward with it," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Wednesday.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is sending the UN envoy in Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, to attend the conference as an observer, UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said.

Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Labid Abawi said the US, Britain, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran had indicated they would attend.

Syria and Egypt confirmed separately they would attend, but there was no immediate comment from Jordan or Saudi Arabia. Bahrain, Turkey and Kuwait were also invited, along with the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
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