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US iran agree in first talks in 27 yrs { May 29 2007 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/05/29/MNG9CQ336K1.DTLhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/05/29/MNG9CQ336K1.DTL
U.S., Iran agree in Iraq talks
First face-to-face in 27 years shows similar views on security
John Ward Anderson, Washington Post
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Hassan Kazemi Qomi, Iranian ambassador, calls Iran and U....
(05-29) 04:00 PDT Baghdad -- The United States and Iran held their first official high-level, face-to-face talks in 27 years on Monday to discuss the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, and officials emerged generally upbeat about the renewed dialogue, suggesting additional meetings were likely.
In briefings, the chief negotiators -- U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and Iran's ambassador to Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi Qomi -- said the talks focused solely on Iraq and did not stray into the contentious areas of Iran's nuclear program or the recent detentions of Iranian American citizens by Tehran.
Monday's four-hour meeting yielded no breakthroughs, but the comments by Crocker and Qomi suggested that the two countries share surprisingly similar assessments of the security problems facing Iraq, if not the causes. Both men characterized the meeting as positive.
"The two sides dealt with the issues in a very frank and transparent and clear way," Qomi told reporters in a news conference at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad. "The views of both sides were unified and identical on the question of the security issue."
Crocker said, "There was pretty good congruence right down the line -- support for a secure, stable, democratic, federal Iraq, in control of its own security, at peace with its neighbors." But then the two sides parted ways, he said.
"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," he said. Crocker said he did not present a dossier of evidence, but he impressed upon his Iranian counterpart that the United States is looking for results and wants Iranian behavior to change.
He said Qomi did not respond to the comments.
At a separate news conference, Qomi said allegations that Iran is supplying insurgents with weapons, munitions and training have been denied by Iran on numerous occasions and "don't prove anything."
In what may be one of the more significant ideas raised at the meeting, Qomi said Iran had proposed the creation of a special security committee composed of Iranian, U.S. and Iraqi officials that could deal with all U.S. allegations about Iranian activities in Iraq. Such a committee could also offer a framework for future meetings, Qomi said.
Crocker said he would forward the proposal to Washington, adding, "My comment at the time was that (the proposed committee) sounded very much like the meeting we were sitting in.
"Their main focus was on the mechanisms, if you will, and principles, rather than the detailed security substance that we need to see improvement on," Crocker said.
Both sides said the talks were instigated by Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and were held in his office. Al-Maliki welcomed the ambassadors, who shook hands, and then escorted them into a conference room. He did not attend the meeting; Iraq was represented at the session by national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie.
The United States blames Iran for fueling much of the bloodshed and violence in Iraq by supplying weapons and munitions to Shiite and Sunni Arab insurgents, who are conducting a deadly campaign against U.S. forces and their partners, including the Iraqi security forces.
Iran charges that the United States is an imperial power that has brought instability not only to Iraq, but to the entire Middle East through its occupation of Iraq and its pro-Israel policies. Iranian leaders have demanded that the United States announce a timetable for the withdrawal of the roughly 150,000 U.S. troops stationed in Iraq. But neither of those issues was raised explicitly at Monday's meeting, Crocker said.
Qomi asserted that "the effort to train and equip the Iraqi security forces had been inadequate to the challenges faced," according to Crocker, who said he responded that the United States had spent billions of dollars on the effort.
Qomi said his side stressed the suffering of Iraqi civilians and the need for better security.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran offered to provide all kinds of support, such as consultations, rehabilitation training and provision of weapons to the Iraqi forces," he said.
Qomi -- formerly a top official in the elite Revolutionary Guards Quds Force -- said he had offered to train and equip the Iraqi army and police to create "a new military and security structure" for Iraq.
Few analysts expected any major announcements from Monday's meeting, but there were hopes that, at a minimum, the talks could open a new era of dialogue that might lead to greater stability in Iraq and more normal relations between Iran and the United States.
Qomi called the meeting "the first step in the process of negotiations between the two sides." Crocker was more reluctant, saying that the Iraqi government is expected to issue an invitation to more talks soon, and that the United States will consider it.
Asked if he was optimistic that direct dialogue would lead to better relations with Iran, he said: "Whether that will produce results is up to them."
The icebreaking session, according to both sides, did not veer into other difficult issues that encumber the U.S.-Iranian relationship -- primarily Iran's nuclear program and the more than a quarter-century history of diplomatic estrangement.
In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the talks could lead to future meetings, but only if Washington admitted that its Middle East policy had failed.
"We are hopeful that Washington's realistic approach to the current issues of Iraq -- by confessing its failed policy in Iraq and the region and by showing a determination to changing the policy -- guarantees success of the talks and possible further talks," Mottaki said.
Crocker said he could not speculate whether future talks -- even if they happened -- would be raised to a higher level, perhaps that of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Mottaki.
The United States and Iran have not had diplomatic relations since the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution, when followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini overthrew the U.S.-backed shah of Iran and established an Islamic state.
Khomeini supporters sacked the U.S. Embassy and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days in an ordeal that deeply humiliated the administration of President Jimmy Carter and battered the American psyche.
Chronicle news services contributed to this report.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/29/MNG9CQ336K1.DTL
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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