Iran, U.S. to hold second round of talks at ambassadorial level: Mottaki
July 19, 2007 - 0:0
TEHRAN -- Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said here Wednesday that Iran and the U.S. will hold the second round of talks at the ambassadorial level in the near future to discuss security in Iraq.
“Iran is seeking to establish security and stability in Iraq” Mottaki told reporters on the sidelines of Wednesday’s cabinet session. “Iran has voiced continued support for providing Iraqi government and people with security and the negotiations are planed to focus on the same issues” he said. The first round of Iran-U.S. talks on Iraq was held on May 28 in Baghdad with the attendance of Iran's Ambassador to Iraq Hassan Kazemi- Qomi and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. envoy to Baghdad. He added that Iranian and Iraqi governments are making every effort to obtain the release of the detained Iranians in Iraq. U.S. troops stormed the Iranian consulate in Irbil, northern Iraq, on January 11 and arrested five diplomats under the pretext that they were fomenting violence in Iraq. Asked about the situation of Iranian detainees in Lebanon, Mottaki said “the case is on the top agenda of Presidential Office and Foreign Ministry. Three Iranian diplomats and one journalist were captured by the Zionist regime 25 years ago, in 1982 in southern Lebanon. He said that Iran is receiving conflicting reports on the situation of Iranian detainees which are currently under investigation