U.S., Iran hold 'positive' talks on Iraq violence

The United States and Iran achieved a minor diplomatic breakthrough in Baghdad yesterday when they held bilateral talks after months of bridge-building by the Iraqi government.

Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq's Foreign Minister, has acted as a mediator between the two sides, trying to break down the barriers of suspicion.

As a result, Ryan Crocker, one of the U.S. State Department's foremost experts on the Muslim world who now serves as ambassador to Iraq, met his Iranian opposite number, Hassan Kazemi Qumi, shaking hands across a table decorated with their respective national flags.

Mr. Crocker's prime objective in the first such talks since the 1979 Iranian Revolution was to persuade Tehran to stop backing Iraq's Shiite gunmen. He stressed the agreement between the stated policies of the United States and Iran toward Iraq. Both want a "secure, stable, democratic, federal Iraq, in control of its own security and at peace with its neighbours," Mr. Crocker said after the talks.

The problem was bringing Iran's "actions on the ground into harmony with their stated principles because right now, the actions that I described to them are running at cross-purposes to their own policy."

For his part, Mr. Qumi brought a specific proposal to the talks. He suggested that the United States, Iran and Iraq form a "Trilateral Security Mechanism" to bring stability to Iraq. If this suggestion were adopted - and Mr. Crocker said the decision was for his superiors in Washington - it could lead to permanent, institutionalized co-operation between the United States and Iran. If so, this would be an immensely significant development.

The two men were helped by the fact that neither ambassador has any responsibility for the "nuclear file" - the key issue dividing the two countries. Mr. Crocker emphasized that they talked about Iraq and nothing else. Iran continues to enrich uranium at its nuclear plant in Natanz in breach of three United Nations resolutions. Next month, the United States is expected to propose tougher sanctions against Iran in the UN Security Council.

Only a meeting between Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. Secretary of State, and Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran's Foreign Minister, could address all the bilateral disputes between the two rivals. There is no indication of when this might happen. The United States has always insisted that Iran stop enriching uranium as a precondition for any formal talks on the nuclear issue. But there are signs that this would not be allowed to prevent a meeting between Ms. Rice and Mr. Mottaki.

Mr. Crocker said Iran didn't respond directly to his accusations that Iran is supplying weapons and munitions to Iraqi militias.

"What we underscored was that beyond principle there is practice, and we have to see Iranian actions on the ground come into practice with stated principles," Mr. Crocker said. "We are going to wait and see what is done next, not what is said next."

In a conference call with reporters, Mr. Crocker said that while he was "somewhat encouraged" the Iranians detailed their policies "in positive terms," he would have liked more of an overall response from the government's officials.

"I think it would not have been reasonable to expect that" participating in "a single meeting was going to produce instant, measurable, positive results," Mr. Crocker said. "I didn't think that was realistic before and, therefore, I'm not particularly disappointed now."

Mr. Crocker said the Iranians described the U.S. military in Iraq as an occupying force and U.S.-led efforts to train and supply the Iraqi army as inadequate. Mr. Crocker said he responded that the United States is in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government, and that "we've put billions of dollars into an increasingly capable Iraqi force."

Mr. Qumi told Mr. Crocker that Iraqis "have been faced with numerous difficulties" caused by "wrong and long-term actions" in occupying Iraq, according to a transcript of the Iranian envoy's remarks carried by Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency.

"The continuation of the U.S. forces' actions will naturally increase the problems of the Iraqi people and Iraq's government," Mr. Qumi said in an interview on state television.

The barriers between the countries stretch back to 1979, when a mob stormed the U.S. embassy in Teheran and held 52 diplomats hostage for 444 days.

This episode helped to destroy Jimmy Carter's presidency and forced the severing of all diplomatic ties.

For Iran, suspicion of the United States stretches back at least as far as the coup against the populist prime minister, Mohammed Mossadeq, which the CIA and Britain's MI6 jointly organized in 1953. The first Supreme Leader after the Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, dubbed the United States the "Great Satan" and began the tradition of holding regular "Death to the United States" rallies. In 2002, President George W. Bush unleashed his own rhetoric, naming Iran a member of the "axis of evil."