Monday, 19 June 2006LONDON, June 19 (IranMania) - Iran confirmed Sunday it would not be holding direct talks on Iraq with the United States, but said it was Washington's "unreasonable" attitude that was to blame, AFP reported.
"Talking to the United States is not on the agenda," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters, the day after visiting Iraqi Shiite leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim issued a fresh call for Iran-US dialogue.
"Because we respect Mr. Hakim, we had accepted his request to talk with the United States, but the Americans have shown an unreasonable and inappropriate attitude which makes discussions impossible," Asefi said.
Hakim had said Saturday that "it is to the benefit of the Iraqi people that Iran and the United States talk about Iraq because the US is present is the region.
"At first they were supposed to talk, which did not happen due to certain issues. We hope Iran and the United States have a dialogue both about Iraq and the nuclear issue," he added.
In an interview broadcast Wednesday, US national security adviser Stephen Hadley said Iran was no longer interested in direct talks over the situation in Iraq.
"The Iranians have indicated they no longer have any interest in doing that," Hadley said, when asked in an interview with CNN if US ambassador in Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, will be meeting Iranian diplomats in Baghdad.
"Where we have focused in terms of our diplomacy with the Iranians, of course, is on the nuclear issue," said Hadley.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had authorised Khalilzad to reach out to the Iranians, and up to late May US officials were saying that talks could go forward -- even though Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by then had said the talks would be of no use.
Monday, June 19, 2006 - T®2005 IranMania.com
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Monday, 19 June 2006
Iran
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