Baghdad, Iraq – U.S. and Iranian diplomats largely echoed the growing acrimony between Washington and Tehran in their first round of talks Monday on Iraqi security.
After four hours of face-to-face closed-door talks, they appeared to have agreed on just one thing: Like their Green Zone host, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, both sides want stability in Iraq under the current government.
The problem is, Washington thinks the best way to achieve that is to get Iran out of the Iraqi picture, and Tehran thinks Washington should go.
The much-anticipated encounter between U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi, which both described as “positive,” was the highest level of official talks between the countries since Washington severed diplomatic relations in 1980.
That was five months after Americans were taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
But the ambassadors, flanked by their staffs and moderated by Iraq national security adviser Mowaffak al- Rubaie, spent much of the time trading charges.
At a news conference after the talks, Crocker renewed U.S. accusations of Iran supplying weapons to Iraqi militias and training them. He challenged the Iranian delegation to back their public talk of supporting the Maliki government and a stable Iraq by stopping their meddling.
“From the American point of view, this is about action, not just principles,” Crocker said. “We laid out specific concerns about the behavior of Iran. … Such activities need to cease.”
Hours after Crocker’s statement, the Iranian ambassador denied the accusations at a news conference at the Iranian Embassy. He said that the next time the U.S. ambassador wants to accuse Iran of something, he should bring evidence.
“For four years, the Americans have failed to rebuild this country. The Americans should solve the problem that Iraqis suffer from,” he said, referring to continued instability in Iraq.
He said that Iran had proposed a joint U.S.-Iran security commission on Iraq, which would bind them to deal directly with each other on security. Crocker said he would have to take the idea back to Washington for consideration.
Kazemi Qomi said he anticipated more such meetings at the Iraqi government’s request.
Crocker was more coy.
“The Iraqi government said it would extend an invitation for further meetings. We’ll consider that invitation when we receive it,” he said. “The meeting should not be simply to arrange other meetings.”
“This negotiation,” said Kazemi Qomi, “is the first step to future negotiations.”
Crocker said that while “businesslike,” the session accomplished little. “Among diplomats, as I’m sure you know, you don’t need a lot of substance to take up a lot of time,” he said.
Kazemi Qomi told reporters that he thought the Iraqi government was ready to stand on its own and pledged that Iran would provide support for the Iraqi Security Forces. “We are ready to support the Iraqi army with weapons, supplies, advice and training,” he said.
Maliki, who opened the talks with a brief speech but did not stay for them, said he did not want Iraq to be a proxy battleground for U.S. and Iran.
“We are not mediators between two adversaries,” Maliki said. “We want an Iraq that is stable and empty of international forces and empty of regional interference.”
In recent months, the Bush administration has claimed to have ample evidence that Iran has been bolstering fellow Shiites and in some cases Sunnis in Iraq with weapons and training.
For its part, Iran continues to call for a withdrawal of U.S. troops, claiming that the U.S. presence creates a refuge for anti-Iranian rebels.
While talk of Tehran’s nuclear ambitions was banned from Monday’s talks on Iraqi security, Washington has been cultivating international pressure to halt the production of highly enriched uranium in Iran. Tehran has fiercely defended its right to proceed and claims its program is aimed chiefly at developing nuclear power plants.
