Iran said yesterday it has agreed to a request from the US for talks on Iraq, just over a week after the two archfoes failed to have substantive contacts at a conference in Egypt.
"Iran has agreed to talk to the US side over Iraq, in Iraq, in order to relieve the pain of the Iraqi people, to support the government and to reinforce security in Iraq," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.
"The time and date of the talks and the ranking of the negotiating team will be made public this week," the state-run IRNA agency quoted him as saying.
The Mehr news agency said the talks would take place in Baghdad.
Hosseini said the talks would go ahead after the US made an official request to Iran through the Swiss embassy in Tehran and also following mediation efforts by Iraqi officials, local media reported.
The US did not confirm fixed plans for talks but a spokeswoman travelling with US Vice President Dick Cheney on his latest tour of the Middle East said Washington was ready for such dialogue.
Lea Anne McBride said the US had shown "willingness to have that conversation, limited to Iraq issues, at the ambassador level."
Hosseini's comments came just over a week after hopes were dashed that Iran and the US would hold substantive contacts at the conference on Iraq's security in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
At that meeting, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki barely exchanged pleasantries with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice while a lower-level encounter on May 4 between high-ranking diplomats lasted just minutes.
Attempts by the Egyptian hosts to bring Rice and Mottaki together over dinner were stymied when the Iranian minister walked out of the gathering in protest at a woman's revealing dress.
The US cut ties in 1980 during the 444-day siege of the US embassy in Tehran by radical students and ties have remained frozen ever since. Its interests in Tehran are now looked after by the Swiss embassy.
The two sides have frequently exchanged verbal blows over Iraq, with the US accusing Tehran of aiding Shiite militia groups and attacking US servicemen, charges vehemently denied by Tehran.
Tensions have also intensified in recent months over the arrest by the US of seven Iranians accused of being operatives of the Revolutionary Guards' elite Qods Brigade intent on stirring trouble in Iraq.
But after the Sharm el-Sheikh meeting Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari predicted that Iran and the US would have to acknowledge each other's importance.
"No matter how dismissive the Iranians are about talking to the Americans, the Americans are players here. And even if the Americans view the Iranians negatively they are here, they are players whether we want it or not," he said.
But in a sign that almost three decades of enmity between the two counties remained intact, Cheney on Friday issued a stark warning to Iran.
"We'll stand with others to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating this region," he said on the USS John C. Stennis as it cruised roughly 240km from Iran.
Also see story:
Cheney visits Egyptian, Saudi Arabian leaders
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique