[New York Times] Kirk Semple - The U.S. and Iran held rare face-to-face talks in Baghdad on Monday, adhering to an agenda that focused strictly on the war in Iraq and on ways to help improve conditions there. The meeting between U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker and Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qumi was held in the offices of Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki. Crocker said he "laid out before the Iranians a number of our direct, specific concerns about their behavior in Iraq." The U.S. has repeatedly accused Iran of meddlesome activities in Iraq, including training Shiite militiamen and shipping highly lethal weaponry into Iraq for use in attacks by Shiite and Sunni Arab militants against American troops. Crocker said he told his Iranian counterpart that those activities "needed to cease." Crocker said the Iraqi government planned to invite the U.S. and Iran to another meeting, but that the U.S. is "going to want to wait and see" whether the Iranians change their "behavior" in Iraq to bring it in line with their stated principles.
2007-05-29 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive