Iran says U.S. requests new talks on Iraq security

[maddezmom]

Source: Reuters

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Monday it had received a request from the United States, its old foe, for a new round of talks on ways to improve security in Iraq and was considering it.

Easing a diplomatic freeze lasting almost three decades, Iranian and U.S. officials met three times in Baghdad last year, but a planned fourth meeting has been repeatedly postponed.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry also voiced support for Iraq's U.S.-backed prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, in his crackdown on militia and suggested Tehran had played a role in efforts to end fighting in its neighbor last month.

Maliki's action was aimed at "confronting illegal armed groups" and this was in the interest of Iraq and its neighbors, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.

But he hit out at the role of U.S. forces during the fighting, blaming them for the deaths of civilians.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080407/wl_nm/iraq_iran_usa_dc_2

[peacetalksforall]

1. Is this par of the set-up - 'showing' that Dick was ready to talk, then

he calls it off and says they called it off, and then they concoct an OK from the UN and they they do the McCain Leiberman Cheney bomb bomb bomb?

Isn't any country taking the peace keeping role?