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US says it is in agreement with Tehran on Iraq

US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, second left, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, top center, and Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi, fourth from front on the right, talk in Baghdad yesterday. PHOTO: AP/IRAQI GOVERNMENT

The US ambassador to Baghdad said he and his Iranian counterpart agreed broadly on policy toward Iraq during four hours of groundbreaking talks yesterday, but insisted that Iran end its support for militants.

Describing the meeting as businesslike, US Ambassador Ryan Crocker said Iran proposed setting up a "trilateral security mechanism" that would include the US, Iraq and Iran. He said the proposal would need study in Washington.

The US envoy also said he told the Iranians their country needed to stop arming, funding and training the militants.

"This is about actions not just principles, and I laid out to the Iranians direct, specific concerns about their behavior in Iraq and their support for militias that are fighting Iraqi and coalition forces," Crocker told a news conference in the Green Zone.

Crocker also disclosed that the Iranians said they would be proposing a second session.

"We will consider that when we receive it," Crocker said. "The purpose [of] this meeting was not to arrange other meetings.

The talks were held at Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Green Zone office.

Just before 10:30am, al-Maliki greeted the two ambassadors, who shook hands, and led them into a conference room, where the ambassadors sat across the table from each other. Al-Maliki then made a brief statement before leaving.

He told both sides that Iraqis wanted a stable country free of foreign forces and regional interference. The country should not be turned into a base for terrorist groups, he said.

He also said that the US-led forces in Iraq were only here to help build up the army and police and the country would not be used as a launching ground for a US attack on a neighbor, a clear reference to Iran.

In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the talks could lead to future meetings, but only if Washington admits its Middle East policy has not been successful.

Meanwhile, a suicide car bomber struck a busy commercial district in central Baghdad, killing at least 21 people and wounding 66, police and hospital officials said. The bomb went off at 2pm near the Abdul-Qadir al-Gailani mosque, a Sunni shrine that is also revered by Shiites.

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