Iran shuns US meeting at Iraq conference

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said today that Iran had no plans to meet with US officials on the sidelines of the forthcoming conference on Iraq, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported.

Mohammad Ali Hosseini’s comments came a day after Iraq announced that ministers from Iraq’s neighbouring countries, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and industrialised nations will hold a meeting in Egypt early next month to discuss the situation in Iraq.

“Talks with the US is not on Iran’s agenda,” said Hosseini.

Despite yesterday’s announcement by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari that the forthcoming conference would be held in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik on May 3-4, Hosseini claimed the date and location had not been decided and expressed Iran’s desire to hold the conference in Baghdad.

“Consultations are currently under way on (determining) the date and venue of the conference. No place has been fixed yet,” he said. “Iran believes the meeting should be held in Baghdad.”

Arab governments have expressed a reluctance to hold the conference in Baghdad, wishing to avoid what they believe would be too strong a show of support for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government.

The Sunni-led governments of the Arab world have long been suspicious of Iraq’s new Shiite leadership, blaming it for fuelling violence by discriminating against Sunni Arabs and accusing it of helping mainly Shiite Iran to extend its influence in the Middle East.

The forthcoming Iraq conference, which was originally planned to take place in Turkey, follows a similar one held in Baghdad last month in which envoys from Iran and the US spoke directly to one another for the first time in years. However, envoys from the two countries did not meet outside the group meeting, and each blamed the other for Iraq’s security crisis.

The US has accused Iran of providing money and weapons to Shiite militias in Iraq, while Iran has argued that the presence of US troops is destabilising the country.

Prior to last month’s conference, Hosseini also indicated that Iran had no plans for sideline meetings with the Americans. Washington did not rule out one-on-one contact with Iran at the time, but stressed that it planned to use the meeting to reinforce its accusations against the country.

US officials have not commented on potential contact with Iran at the forthcoming conference.