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Iran, Syria to join Iraq talks

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 1, 2007

BAGHDAD - Iraq's neighbors including Iran and Syria have agreed to join U.S. and British representatives to discuss the Iraqi security crisis at a regional conference March 10 in Baghdad, the government said Wednesday.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said he will issue formal invitations shortly to the neighboring countries and the five permanent U.N. Security Council members - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - to send deputy foreign ministers or senior officials to the conference.

Zebari said the Iranians agreed to participate in a meeting with the other neighbors but "they have some questions" about a separate session that would be held the same day with the five permanent council members.

His words seemed to indicate that Iran was at least partly unhappy with the arrangements for the conference, and weighing the extent of its own participation.

Iran has had little public comment on the conference so far. But in the past, Iranian leaders have been vocal in accusing the United States of trying to use the U.N. as a way to "gang up" on it, and the presence of the key Security Council countries at the Iraq conference might give Iran pause.

For their part, Sunni Arab countries like Egypt still hold grave concerns about the direction taken by Iraq's Shiite-led government, raising concerns the conference will make little headway on key issues like security.

Iraq's relations with its Arab neighbors have been rocky because of fears that the Shiite-led government is falling under Iran's influence. Originally, the Iraqi government had been reluctant to endorse the regional conference, fearing pressure from Sunni-dominated regimes, but it dropped those objections last year so long as the gathering was held on Iraqi soil.

The March conference got a big boost Tuesday when Washington said it would attend, leading to the possibility it could discuss Iraq's security with adversaries Syria and Iran.

The White House previously had dismissed the recommendation from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group in December that it reach out to Syria and Iran to try to stabilize Iraq, saying both nations would try to use the opportunity as leverage in unrelated confrontations with the West.

Syria would want a free pass on allegations it is behind the assassination of a Lebanese politician, Washington said, while Iran would make cooperation in Iraq part of discussions about the nuclear program.

After a separate diplomatic overture to North Korea, does the latest shift on Iran portend a retreat from the Bush administration's famously hard line against unsavory regimes?

"This just didn't happen overnight. This happened as a result of careful policy and diplomatic groundwork that has been laid over the course of the years of this administration," but only now bearing fruit, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Labid Abawi said the United States, Britain, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran said they will attend.

"The conference will be important. It will prove that Iraq is politically capable of holding such a conference. It will send a message to the world," said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's adviser, Sami al-Askari.

Syria and Egypt confirmed separately they would attend, but there was no immediate comment from Jordan or Saudi Arabia. Bahrain, Turkey and Kuwait were also invited, along with the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Ali Larijani, the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said it was important to involve Iraq's neighbors.

"We believe Iraq's security is related to all its neighboring countries, and they have to help settle the situation," Larijani said.

But Mustafa Alani, an expert in Iraqi affairs at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai, said while the conference will officially focus on Iraq's security, neighboring Sunni Arab countries and the U.S. will use it to convey their disquiet at Iranian influence.

Each side has accused the other of being responsible for the spiraling violence in Iraq. The U.S. says Iran is sending weapons and money to Shiite extremists in Iraq. Iraqi officials, meanwhile, have complained that Syria harbors former Saddam Hussein loyalists and allows weapons and foreign fighters to slip into the country, while Sunni countries believe the fault lies with Iraq's Shiite-led government.

As for other topics, the subject of sophisticated homemade bombs might come up at the conference, McCormack said. The Bush administration says that at least one element of the Iranian regime is supplying Iraqi insurgents with especially lethal bombs that kill U.S. troops.

As for Iran's disputed nuclear program, the United States won't bring it up, McCormack said.

[Last modified March 1, 2007, 01:04:31]