Tehran - Iran is prepared to support all initiatives which
would guarantee security and stability in Iraq, Foreign Ministry
spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said on Sunday, a day after a
landmark Baghdad conference which saw the participation of Iran,
Syria and the United States.
'We will fully support whatever plan or initiative guaranteeing
security and stability in Iraq and therefore consider the Baghdad
conference as an important step for supporting the government of
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki,' Hosseini said in his weekly press
conference.
'We hope that this conference will be a prologue for a conference
at foreign ministry level,' Hosseini added.
The spokesman however refrained to say whether Iranian Foreign
Minister Manouchehr Mottaki would be ready to talk to his US
counterpart Condoleezza Rice were such a ministry-level meeting to
take place.
He said it was premature to talk about a Rice-Mottaki meeting and
the probability would be decided when the time was ripe.
While rejecting any direct talks having been held between Iran and
the United States in Baghdad, Hosseini reiterated that Iran was in
favour of a timetable for the withdrawal of the US-led coalition
forces from Iraq, leaving all state and security affairs into the
hands of the Iraq government and decisively fighting terrorism
'however without discrimination.'
The spokesman was referring to alleged US cooperation with the
Iranian rebel group People's Mujaheddin, which is still based in
Iraq. Tehran and also some Western countries have classified the
group as a terrorist organization.
Hosseini said that Iran would also be ready to cooperate with Iraq
in covering the energy needs of the war-torn country.
Tehran had earlier Sunday termed the international conference on
Iraq's security held in Baghdad the previous day as 'serious and
constructive.'
'The conference realised its main aim which was serious support
for the Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government, and prepared
grounds for future talks at (foreign) minister level,' Deputy Iranian
Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told news network Khabar.
A second conference at foreign minister level is scheduled to be
held next month in Istanbul.
Araqchi, who represented Tehran at the conference, said that Iran
entered the conference 'with a spirit of understanding' and expressed
its concern over the situation in Iraq.
The deputy minister denied any direct talks in Baghdad with
representatives of Iran's political arch-foe the United States and
said the two sides only talked within the session, and only about
Iraq.
He added there had been 'heated' discussions with the US side over
the six Iranian diplomats detained by American forces in Iraq. Tehran
says the diplomatic immunity of the Iranian detainees should be
respected but the US accuses them of being agents, and not diplomats.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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