US-Iran talks on May 28 

“We will talk exclusively about Iraq”

ISLAMABAD – The announced US-Iran talks on the Iraqi situation will take place at ambassadorial level on May 28 in Iraq. Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki announced this. “The talks are limited to Iraq and will begin in the presence of Iraqi officials,” said Tehran’s head of diplomacy during a press conference in Islamabad, Pakistan. The venue of the meeting has not yet been specified, but it should be Baghdad.

Mottaki reiterated what was already underlined yesterday by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme spiritual leader of the Islamic Revolution and, as such, the highest institutional authority in Tehran: “The agenda of the talks will not foresee anything else. The talks will focus strictly on the situation of security in Iraq “.

Khamenei had pointed out that the attitude of the Islamic Republic has not changed in any way, and it will not be changed until the substance of Washington’s policy has been changed. Moreover, he had emphasized, the occasion will serve to Iran to remind the American interlocutors of the “duties” that are incumbent on them as “occupiers”.

The talks will be held at the explicit request of the government of Baghdad, whose foreign minister, the Kurdish Hoshyar Zebari, welcomed the news of the parties’ availability. The US administration itself has admitted that Tehran could play a “productive role” in Iraqi normalization, despite the fact that accusations against the interference regime in internal affairs of the neighboring country launched against the regime of the ayatollahs that Washington claims to support guerrilla war and terrorism and finances Shia militias have never been officially withdrawn.

“In Iraq we have two problems that we must deal with – Mottaki said – One concerns the instability caused by terrorist activities. The other is the continuation of the occupation. We believe that the correct approach to the Iraqi question consists in facing both two orders of difficulty arising from it “.

May 17, 2007