Iraq urges Iran and U.S. to talk
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's foreign minister urged Iran and the United States on Wednesday to stop trading accusations and sit down for a fourth round of talks to seek solutions to Iraq's security woes.
Hoshiyar Zebari said Iraq-hosted talks between the two bitter foes -- one of the few forums in which they have direct diplomatic contact -- had stalled. But he hoped they could soon be revived.
The Iraqis have repeatedly said they do not want their territory to become the battleground in a proxy war between the United States and Iran, who are also at loggerheads over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
"We believe it is very important to bring both parties to the negotiating table to discuss Iraqi security issues," Zebari told a news conference. "We can't currently make this happen with both countries trading accusations against each other."
On Monday, Tehran dismissed any prospect of imminent talks with U.S. officials in Baghdad, accusing American forces of a "massacre" of the Iraqi people, an apparent reference to an offensive against militants loyal to anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City.
Washington responded it was "meaningless" to have talks with the Iranians "as long as they don't change their behavior".
The United States accuses Tehran of arming, financing and training Shi'ite militia groups that launch attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq. Iran denies this and says the presence of American troops is to blame for the country's violence.
Zebari, the driving force behind the previous talks, has expressed frustration at repeated delays in setting a date for a fresh round of discussions.
U.S. and Iranian officials met three times last year to seek common ground on stabilizing Iraq in discussions arranged by Baghdad. One of the few concrete results from those rounds was formation of a joint security committee.
"So far, there is no commitment to a fourth date, although the will is still there," Zebari said. "Though the talks are stalled, they are far from dead. We will continue our efforts to let both parties agree on a new date. We do not lose hope."
PROBE INTO IRANIAN WEAPONS
Last week, an Iraqi delegation from the ruling Shi'ite alliance went to Iran to present evidence of Iranian support for militias. Iranian officials told the delegation it was doing everything it could to support Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has since ordered a special committee to be set up to collect evidence on any Iranian interference that it will also present to Tehran.
Iran and Iraq fought an eight-year war in the 1980s in which hundreds of thousands were killed. But ties have improved since Sunni Arab strongman Saddam Hussein was ousted in the U.S.-led invasion and a Shi'ite-led government came to power in Baghdad.
Stepping up the pressure on Tehran, the U.S. military said last week it had found "very, very significant" amounts of Iranian arms in the southern city of Basra and also Baghdad during recent crackdowns on Shi'ite militias.
A U.S. military spokesman, Major-General Kevin Bergner, told a news conference on Wednesday the Iraqi army had recovered tens of thousands of weapons, bombs and munitions in various operations across the country in recent months.
He did not directly link the finds to Tehran, but hinted at Iranian support.
"We know that these groups could not do what they were doing without foreign support," Bergner said.
"That includes weapons, training to deploy those weapons, funding. The evidence is unequivocal that those extremist groups depend on those foreign sources."
He said the biggest discovery was in Basra, where Iraqi forces found 1,800 mortars and artillery rounds, 600 rockets, 300 roadside bombs and 87 particularly lethal roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators.
(Additional reporting by Aseel Kami and Khalid al-Ansary; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Charles Dick)
