Baghdad – Iran agreed Sunday to attend a
major regional conference on Iraq set for this week in Egypt – a
major break as Iraq seeks support from its neighbors in quelling its
sectarian violence.
A statement from the Iraqi prime minister’s office said President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad telephoned the Iraqi leader and told him Iran
would participate in the meeting Thursday and Friday in the resort
of Sharm El-Sheik.
Iraq’s other neighbors as well as Egypt, Bahrain and
representatives of the big five U.N. Security Council members have
agreed to attend the meeting in Egypt, and the Shiite-led Iraqi
government has been pressing for Iranian participation as well.
Iraq has found itself in a difficult position since the U.S.-led
invasion in 2003, with the government trying to maintain good
relations with its predominantly Shiite neighbor while not angering
the Americans.
Al-Maliki’s government also will face demands by Arab countries,
most of which are Sunni-led, that it do more to accommodate
disgruntled Sunni Arabs before pledging any substantial aid,
according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.
The stance, and the festering tensions between Iraq and its
neighbors, are complicating the U.S. and Iraqi goal of rounding up
strong support, including forgiveness of Iraq’s debts. The country
owes billions of dollars to its Arab neighbors.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said
Ali Larijani, the top Iranian envoy, would be in Baghdad on Sunday
to discuss the conference with Iraqi government officials as Iran
has “some questions and ambiguities about the agenda.” The
government in Tehran has demanded the release of five Iranian
officials detained in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil by U.S.
troops in January, but Hosseini denied his country had linked its
participation at the conference to that demand.
Iran says the official were diplomats who should not have been
detained. The U.S. military has said the Iranians are suspected of
links to a network supplying arms to Iraqi insurgents – an
accusation that Iran has denied.
“It is not intended to tie the fate of these five with that of the
conference,” Hosseini said.
The head of the Iranian parliamentary committee on national
security and foreign policy, Alaeddin Boroojerdi, also said Iran’s
failure to participate in Sharm el-Sheik would lay the Islamic
republic open to criticism from the United States.
“Iran should attend the conference, actively and powerfully,”
Boroojerdi was quoted as saying by Iran’s official Islamic Republic
News Agency.
Iran has considerable influence among Shiite parties in Iraq, who
now lead the country’s government. It is also alleged to have links
with Shiite militant groups, which is why numerous American
politicians and analysts have urged Washington to engage Iran in
talks designed to curb the violence in Iraq.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was expected to lead
the delegation to Egypt, Hosseini told Iranian state television.
President Bush on Tuesday signaled that the conference could
provide an opportunity for direct talks between his administration
and Iran, but he stressed that Iran’s nuclear program would not be
on the table.
He said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice might have bilateral
conversations with Iran’s foreign minister at the conference.
“They could. They could,” Bush told PBS’ “The Charlie Rose Show.”
The United States cut diplomatic ties with Iran following the 1979
storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Although periodic diplomatic
contacts have occurred, the Bush administration has resisted
pressure at home and abroad to engage Iran in an effort to improve
security in Iraq.
That policy began to change this spring. Although it is not
inviting a broad conversation, the administration has repeatedly
said it will not rule out sideline talks with either Iran or Syria
at the conference May 3-4.
