U.S. and Iranian officials will meet a second time over accusations that Iran is aiding insurgents in neighboring Iraq.
“We can confirm that a date has been agreed upon and that there will soon be a meeting between the U.S. and Iran,” Natalie Gewargis, a spokeswoman for the Embassy of Iraq in Washington, said via e-mail Tuesday. Iran and Iraq will announce the date, she said.
An Iraqi official, speaking earlier Tuesday to a group of reporters in Washington, said Iraqis were working to organize the meeting between the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, and an Iranian diplomat.
The United States and Iran had their highest-level contact in 27 years on May 28 when Crocker met Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi in Baghdad for talks on improving security in Iraq.
It “would be appropriate to have another face-to-face meeting to directly convey to the Iranian authorities that, if they wish to see a more stable, secure” and peaceful Iraq, “they need to change their behavior,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Tuesday.
The U.S. has repeatedly accused Iran of arming, training and financing insurgents in neighboring Iraq and fueling sectarian violence between the country’s Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.
