Baghdad: Iranian diplomats have indicated they want to skip a postponed meeting with security, military and diplomatic experts from the US and instead hold another round of talks at the ambassadorial level, Iraqi officials said on Monday.
A meeting of such experts was cancelled a few days before it was to open on December 18. At the time, Iranian officials said it was a scheduling problem. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit to Iraq the day the meeting was to have occurred.
Since then, top Iranian officials in Iraq have asked their Iraqi counterparts to push American officials to hold a fourth-round of talks between Ambassador Ryan Crocker and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Kazemi Qomi. The two last met in August, shortly after the first meeting of experts.
"I would be open to this. We could do it at the experts' level or we could do it at my level. I would definitely see that as a possibility," he said. "We're looking at what we might talk about, which I think is the first and necessary step before deciding who talks about it." Sami Al Askari, an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki and a member of parliament, said a top Iranian diplomat told him in recent days that US officials are not providing enough information about what any new round of talks at any level will achieve.
"They told us that the Americans are vague and that they want to know what is the goal, what is the purpose of these talks," he said.
"They said they do not want to talk on the level of experts - that at a minimum, it should be at the ambassadorial level or even higher." Al Askari went on to say that the Iranians have complained that they have contributed to the improving security situation in Iraq, but that US officials have done little to acknowledge that.
"The Iranians will not stand anymore going to talk with the US one day and the next day watch the Americans speak bad about them in the press - by saying Iran is supporting militias and supplying weapons," he said.
