Iran is ready to consider high level talks with the US regarding security in Iraq, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported on Wednesday.
"The issue of negotiations between Iran and the US about Iraq at the level of deputy foreign ministers is reviewable," the agency quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying after a cabinet meeting in Tehran.
Mottaki's statement came a day after the US and Iranian ambassadors to Iraq met in Baghdad and agreed to set up a security subcommittee to carry forward talks on restoring stability in the wartorn nation.
Mottaki said that "Necessary studies will be undertaken" in case a "formal request" is made by the US for new, higher level talks on Iraq.
But in Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said he did not "see that happening."
"We have an established channel with [US Ambassador in Baghdad] Ryan Crocker and we are taking a look at establishing a subcommittee, but that group would actually be lower level officials," McCormack said.
Lawmaker Kazem Jalali, the spokesman for Iran's parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, supported the idea of beefing up discussions.
"If the conclusions on the two rounds of talks are positive, it will be possible to upgrade [the meetings] to the level of deputy foreign minister, or even to the ministerial-level," Jalali said.
"Iran and the US are key players in Iraq," he said. "If the talks go well, it can be determining for Iraq."
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said after the talks in Baghdad that experts would meet as early as Wednesday to work out the structure and mechanism of the committee.
"We hope that the next round of talks will be on a higher level if progress is made," he said at a news conference after the talks.
But underscoring the rising tensions between the two foes, US Ambassador Ryan Crocker reiterated accusations that Iran is fueling the violence in Iraq by arming and training Shiite militias. He warned on Tuesday that no progress could be made unless Iranian actions change on the ground.
For his part, Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi countered that Tehran was helping Iraq deal with the security situation but that Iraqis were "victimized by terror and the presence of foreign forces" on their territory.
He said Tuesday his delegation also demanded the release of five Iranians detained by US forces in Iraq. The US has said the five were linked to Iran's elite Quds Force, which it has accused of arming and training Iraqi militants. Iran says the five are diplomats who were legally in Iraq.
Iraq's fragile government has been pressing for more contacts between the two nations with the greatest influence over its future, and Iran has repeatedly signaled its willingness to sit down.
Iran holds considerable sway in Iraq, where the majority of the population is also Shiite Muslim and where many Shiite political parties are seen as having ties to Tehran.
The US broke off diplomatic ties with the Islamic republic following the 1979 storming of the US embassy in Tehran and the holding of American hostages for 444 days.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS