U.S.-Iran Talks on Iraq to Begin May 28

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, right speaks as his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari, left, looks on after their meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan on Wednesday, May 16, 2007. Zebari and Mottaki are in Pakistan to attend the 34th session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers, discussing the various regional and Middle East related issues. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed) (Anjum Naveed - AP)

Last year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave former U.S. ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad a mandate to open talks with Iran _ but only to discuss Iraq. The Iranians initially rejected the offer of direct talks only on Iraq, saying the U.S. had raised other issues and was trying to use the meeting for propaganda.

But U.S. and Iranian diplomats went on to hold rare discussions on the sidelines of a March gathering in Baghdad that helped lay the groundwork for a conference on Iraq earlier this month in Egypt. However, a much-touted meeting at that conference between Rice and Mottaki failed to materialize.

The last talks largely served to underscore the wide gulf between Americans and Iranians over the crisis in Iraq and the ways to end it. Envoys traded harsh words and blamed each other.

The U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Iran over the 1979 Iran hostage crisis and although the agreement to hold more talks could be a sign of a turn in the relationship, tensions between Washington and Tehran have been escalating recently.

The two sides are at loggerheads over Tehran's nuclear program _ a topic both Mottaki and Crocker said would not be discussed in Baghdad.

The U.S. also accuses Iran of arming and financing militants in Iraq _ a claim Iran denies. U.S. and some Iraqi officials suspect the Iranians may be stoking a growing power struggle among Shiite factions and political parties _ despite Tehran's insistence that it is working to help bring stability to Iraq.

Vice President Dick Cheney warned Iran last week during a visit to the Gulf that the U.S. and its allies would prevent the country from developing nuclear weapons and dominating the region.

Iran denies seeking to build nuclear weapons and accuses the U.S. of seeking to topple its government.

Mottaki said Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana would resume their talks on the nuclear deadlock next week in Spain or another European country.

He said Iran was "flexible" and was seeking to remove "ambiguities" about its intentions. But he gave no indication that Iran would agree to the U.N. demand that it freeze uranium enrichment, a process that can produce material for nuclear weapons as well as civilian power stations.

He accused some countries, which he did not name, of exerting unfair pressure on members of the U.N. Security Council, which already has introduced limited sanctions against Iran over the nuclear issue.

In an apparent reference to Washington's refusal to rule out the use of force against Iran, Mottaki said that military might alone was no longer enough to guarantee success in foreign policy.

He said both the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Israel's war in Lebanon last year, which pitted it against Hezbollah fighters backed by Iran and Syria, failed in the face of "resistance," Mottaki said.

"We do believe that ... resistance now is (an) essential part of the belief of the Islamic ummah (community), of the Middle East people."

Mottaki said any broader improvement in relations would take time.

"The file of the problems between the United States and Iran in bilateral relations in very thick," Mottaki said.

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Associated Press writer Ravi Nessman in Baghdad contributed to this report.