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Guardian reports the US ambassador in Baghdad said today he had warned Iran against supporting insurgents in Iraq during the first official bilateral talks between Washington and Tehran in almost three decades. Ryan Crocker said the four hours of talks in Baghdad with his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, had been businesslike and positive, despite his words on Iranian backing for militias. Tehran vehemently denies it is aiding insurgents. “The talks proceeded positively.

What we need to see is Iranian action on the ground,” Mr Crocker told reporters after the talks at the office of the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, inside the sealed-off Green Zone compound in Baghdad. “I laid out before the Iranians a number of direct, specific concerns about their behaviour in Iraq - their support for militias that are fighting both the Iraqi security forces and the coalition forces. “The fact [is] that a lot of explosives and ammunitions used by these groups are coming from Iran … The Iranians did not respond directly to that, they did again emphasise that their policy is support of the [Iraqi] government,” he said. Iranian officials wanted to request a second session of discussions, Mr Crocker said, adding: “We will consider that when we receive it.” Iran also proposed setting up a “trilateral security mechanism” that would include the US, Iraq and Iran, the ambassador said, adding that any move on this would need study in Washington. The talks - the first such public contact between the US and Iran since they broke off diplomatic relations in 1980 - deliberately ignored the vexed issue of Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and were aimed solely at discussing ways to improve the appalling security situation inside Iraq. As the men talked, a suicide car bomber struck in the Sinak commercial district of central Baghdad, killing at least 21 people and wounding 66, police and hospital officials said.

Despite its concerns about Iran, the US is trying to enlist the country to help stem the sectarian violence in Iraq between Sunnis and Shias that threatens to spiral into all-out civil war. Direct contact with Iran was recommended by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group report, commissioned by the US Congress and released late last year. Hopes of any real advance in today’s talks diminished even before they began as Tehran formally complained last night about alleged American and British spying in Iran. A top Iranian foreign ministry official summoned the Swiss ambassador in Tehran, who represents US interests, to launch a formal protest about what he called “espionage networks”. Iranian state television reported that the official, Ahmad Sobhani, demanded an explanation for groups he said were committing “infiltration and sabotage in western, central and south-western areas of the country”. Iran has repeatedly complained of US and British attempts to stir up its ethnic minorities as a way of putting pressure on the leadership. The US has repeated accusations that Iran is sending explosives and other material to insurgents in Iraq. Speaking today in Tehran, Iran’s foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, argued that the talks could only lead to future meetings if Washington admitted its Middle East policy had been mistaken. “We are hopeful that Washington’s realistic approach to the current issues of Iraq by confessing its failed policy in Iraq and the region and by showing a determination to changing the policy guarantees success of the talks and possible further talks,” he said. Despite the deliberately narrow focus of the discussions, many other sources of tension remain, not least intense US-led pressure on Iran over its nuclear enrichment programme. Washington and others claim Iran wants nuclear weapons, while Tehran insists it is purely a civil energy scheme. Iran’s government also remains deeply suspicious that the Bush administration harbours plans for regime change in Tehran.

The United States ambassador in Baghdad said he and his Iranian counterpart agreed broadly on policy toward Iraq during four-hour groundbreaking talks on Monday, but insisted that Iran end its support for militants. The Iranian ambassador later said the two sides would meet again in less than a month.

 Hassan Kazemi Qomi, the Iranian envoy, also said that he told the Americans that his government was ready to train and equip the Iraqi army and police to create “a new military and security structure.” Kazemi did not elaborate nor would he say how U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker responded. The Baghdad talks were the first of their kind and a small sign that Washington thinks rapprochement with Iran is possible after more than a quarter-century of diplomatic estrangement that began with the 1979 Islamic revolution. “The next meeting will occur in Iraq in less than one month,” Kazemi told an Associated Press reporter after his news conference at the Iranian Embassy. Crocker earlier said the Iraqis planned to propose a second session and that the United States would decide upon a follow-on meeting when the invitation was issued. “We will consider that when we receive it,” Crocker told reporters in the U.S.-controlled Green Zone. “The purpose of this meeting was not to arrange other meetings.” Crocker described the session as businesslike and said Iran proposed setting up a “trilateral security mechanism” that would include the U.S., Iraq and Iran, an idea he said would require study in Washington. The U.S. envoy also said he told the Iranians their country needed to stop arming, funding and training the militants. The Iranians laid out their policy toward Iraq, Crocker said, describing it as “very similar to our own policy and what the Iraqi government have set out as their own guiding principles.” He added: “This is about actions not just principles, and I laid out to the Iranians direct, specific concerns about their behavior in Iraq and their support for militias that are fighting Iraqi and coalition forces.” Kazemi did not raise the subject of seven Iranians now in American custody in Iran, Crocker said: “The focus of our discussions were Iraq and Iraq only.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), who was criticized by the White House for her trip to Syria — also a U.S. rival — praised the Bush administration for holding Monday’s talks. “I think it’s very important, and at the end of the day we want to know that every remedy, every diplomatic remedy has been exhausted,” she said in Berlin. The talks were held at Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Green Zone office. Al-Maliki did not attend the meeting, but the prime minister greeted the two ambassadors, who shook hands, and led them into a conference room, where the ambassadors sat across from each other. Before leaving, al-Maliki told both sides that Iraqis wanted a stable country free of foreign forces and regional interference. The country should not be turned into a base for terrorist groups, he said. He also said that the U.S.-led forces in Iraq were only here to help build up the army and police and the country would not be used as a launching ground for a U.S. attack on a neighbor, a clear reference to Iran. “We are sure that securing progress in this meeting would, without doubt, enhance the bridges of trust between the two countries and create a positive atmosphere” that would help them deal with other issues, he said. Speaking in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the United States should admit its Middle East policy has failed. “We are hopeful that Washington’s realistic approach to the current issues of Iraq by confessing its failed policy in Iraq and the region and by showing a determination to changing the policy guarantees success of the talks and possible further talks,” Mottaki said. Monday’s talks, as predicted, had a pinpoint focus: What Washington and Iran — separately or together — could do to contain the sectarian conflagration in Iraq. “The American side has accusations against Iran and the Iranian side has some remarks on the presence of the American forces on Iraqi lands, which they see as a threat to their government,” said Ali al-Dabagh, an Iraqi government spokesman. But much more encumbered the narrow agenda — primarily Iran’s nuclear program and Iranian fears that the Bush administration will seek regime change in Tehran as it did against Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Washington and its Sunni Arab allies, on their side, are deeply unnerved by growing Iranian influence in the Middle East and the spread of increasingly radical Islam. Compounding all that is Iran’s open hostility to Israel. Other issues clouding the talks included U.S. Navy exercises in the Persian Gulf last week and tough talk from President Bush about new U.N. penalties over the Iranian nuclear program. The United States says Iran is trying to build a bomb; Iran says it needs nuclear technology for energy production. Further complicating the talks, Iran said Saturday it had uncovered spy rings organized by the United States and its Western allies.

Source: Associated Press