Iran is willing to open a dialogue with the United States on
Iraq, a senior official said Thursday.
"We accept this proposal and we will appoint a negotiating team
for talks soon," Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran Supreme National
Security Council, told reporters in response to a call by Iraqi
Shi'ite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim for Iran to start talks with
Washington on Iraq.
Iranian officials had previously said Teheran was not interested
in discussions before US troops pulled out of Iraq.
Iran has repeatedly been accused by the United States of
allowing weapons and insurgents to cross its borders into Iraq,
which is gripped by sectarian violence that has raised fears of a
civil war. Teheran denies the US allegations.
Hakim, a leader in the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in
Iraq (SCIRI) who developed close ties with Iran when he opposed
Saddam Hussein during years in exile there, called on Iran to open
talks with the United States.
"We want the wise Iranian leadership to open a clear dialogue
with America regarding Iraq and reach an understanding on disputed
issues in Iraq, a dialogue for the benefit of the Iraqi people," he
told a gathering of his supporters in comments broadcast on a
Shi'ite television channel.
Britain's Sunday Times newspaper said journalists in
Teheran had been shown a letter by a senior Iranian intelligence
agent that was purportedly from US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay
Khalilzad and which invited Iran to send representatives to talks
in Iraq.
The newspaper said the letter was written in Farsi, which the
Afghan-born ambassador speaks. Khalilzad told CNN there had been no
meetings between Iranian and US officials.
Khalilzad denied seeking Iran's help to calm violence in Iraq
and said there were concerns about the Islamic Republic's alleged
links with militias in Iraq.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that Khalilzad is
authorized to talk about Iraq, much as the United States has talked
with Iran about issues relating to Afghanistan, but not about
Iran's nuclear program.
(China Daily March 17, 2006)
