AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
Tehran, Iran: At loggerheads with the United States over its nuclear programme, Tehran said Thursday it was ready to negotiate with the “Great Satan” to help stabilise neighboring Iraq. The White House responded by saying any talks would not take up the nuclear crisis or other disputes and that negotiators would have a “very narrow mandate.”
“We agree to negotiate with the Americans,” the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani told reporters after a closed-door speech to parliament.
“Iran accepts the demand of (Iraqi Shiite leader Abdel Aziz) Hakim to resolve the Iraqi problems and issues with the goal of creating an independent (Iraqi) government,” said Larijani, also Iran's nuclear chief.
Hakim, leader of one of Iraq's main Shiite parties, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), called Wednesday for a dialogue between longtime foes Iran and America.
His comments echoed those of the US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, who said in a television interview Friday he was ready to hold talks with Iran on matters of mutual concern.
President George W. Bush's administration has stepped up its accusations in recent days about Iranian “meddling” in Iraq, adding to the pressure over Tehran's disputed nuclear activities, which Iran says is for peaceful purposes.
In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: “The nuclear issue is being discussed at the United Nations among diplomats of the Security Council. That's a separate issue.”
Asked whether negotiations on Iraq would be a step forward in US-Iran relations, he replied: “Our views and concerns regarding the regime in Iran are very clear, and we have a number of concerns about the regime. The other issues are separate from this issue.”
For his part, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns said it would be fruitless to try to negotiate with Tehran on its nuclear program in view of the country's track record on the issue.
“The problem here is not the absence of discussions between the United States and Iran, the problem is what Iran is doing,” Burns told reporters.
“We see an Iranian government, particularly since (President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad came to office, that seems bound and determined to create a nuclear weapons capability.
“We have made the calculation (…) that it is better to try to isolate the Iranian government.”
Observers were skeptical the United States and Iran could make any headway on Iraq as long as the sides continue to tussle over the Tehran's nuclear programme.
“There is no way talks between the US and Iran over Iraq will get anywhere if they are not tied in with negotiations over the nuclear question, because Iran is using its ability to cause “harm and pain” to the US in Iraq as leverage in that matter,” said Joost Hiltermann, director of the Brussels-based International Crisis group's Middle East offices.
Until now, US embassy officials have insisted any contact with Tehran would have to come from Washington despite the giant Iranian embassy's lying only a few blocks away from the capital's highly fortified Green Zone.
If US-Iranian negotiations were to occur, it would be their first direct talks since Washington broke ties with Tehran in April 1980 after the Islamic revolution that ousted the US-backed shah and the taking of US hostages.
Until now, the arch rivals have resisted a dialogue on Iraq, despite Iran's strong ties to the major Shiite parties who dominate Baghdad's political scene, and the growing violence that threatens to tear Iraq apart.
The last time the sides sat at the same table was in 2001 in a room with seven other countries, including Russia, for discussions over Afghanistan.
Over the years, efforts to revive ties between Tehran and Washington have proven elusive amid numerous false starts, most prominently during Iran's reformist era under then president Mohammed Khatami.
In fact, the relationship has sunk to new lows over the past five years after Bush named Iran part of an axis of evil along with North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq in 2002.
Ahmadinejad has only added fuel to the fire with his fierce anti-Western rhetoric and his defense of the country's nuclear program.
In turn, US leaders have accused the Islamic republic of exporting terror and having ambitions to obtain an atomic bomb. The White House named Tehran its number one security threat in its National Security Strategy document, obtained by AFP on Thursday.
The UN Security Council is due to take up the matter of Iran's nuclear program on Friday, paving the way for possible sanctions and even greater tensions between the Islamic republic and the world's sole super power.
