Date published: 2007/05/28
The BBC says:
The US has called on Iran to stop arming militants in Iraq at the first bilateral public talks between the two countries in almost 30 years.
US envoy Ryan Crocker said his Iranian counterpart had rejected the charges at the four-hour talks in Baghdad, which focused exclusively on Iraq's security.
Both countries agreed that a secure and stable Iraq was in their interests.
Iran's ambassador, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, described the meeting as a success and said there were plans for future talks.
...
Speaking after the meeting in the Green Zone, Mr Crocker said he had spelt out Washington's concerns about alleged Iranian support for insurgents who have been attacking Iraqi and US-led forces.He said the arming of the militia groups, allegedly led by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' Quds Force, needed to end and that the US would "be looking for results".
The US ambassador to Iraq acknowledged that the Iranians too had made their views clear.
"They made the assertion that the coalition presence was an occupation and that the effort to train and equip the Iraqi security forces had been inadequate to the challenges faced," he said.
Mr Crocker said he had rejected the allegation by making clear that coalition forces were in Iraq at the Iraqi government's request and that the coalition had invested billions of dollars into training and equipping Iraqi forces.
Nevertheless, Mr Crocker said the talks had proceeded "positively" and there had been broad agreement for a "secure, stable, democratic, federal Iraq in control of its own security, at peace with its neighbours".
He also said Washington would consider an Iranian proposal for the setting up of a regular "trilateral security mechanism" incorporating Iraq, Iran and the US to co-ordinate on such matters.
The fact that the talks have occurred at all means that the lunatics in the US administration, led by Vice President Cheney, have temporarily lost favour. But these people still want to attack Iran, so these talks are only a small step forward. And the Iranians are correct, the US is an occupier of Iraq. The idea that the occupation is legitimised because the current Iraqi government have approved this is like saying that the Russian occupation of Eastern Europe was legitimate because the puppet governments they had installed also approved of that. It is pretty clear that the vast majority of Iraqi people do not want the Americans in Iraq. Their opinion counts for more than that of any puppet government the Americans have installed in Baghdad.
_________________________________________________________
All material not included from other sources is copyright cambridge2000.com.
For further information or questions email: info [at] cambridge2000 [dot] com
(replace "[at]" with "@" and "[dot]" with ".").