TEHRAN – The Iran-U.S. talks on Iraq’s security situation will surely become more fruitful if the United State forces release the Iranian diplomats, an Iraqi political official said on Saturday.

Mohsen al-Hakim, who acts as political adviser to Iraqi Islamic Council Chairman Abudl Aziz al-Hakim, said the Iraqi officials are trying to obtain the release of the remaining Iranian diplomats who are detained in Iraq “without any reason.”
He said the issue is always raised in Iraqi officials’ meetings with U.S. officials, al-Hakim told the Mehr News Agency.
U.S. troops stormed the Iranian consulate in northern Kurdish city of Irbil on January 11 and arrested five diplomats under the pretext that they were fomenting violence in Iraq.
Two of the detainees were freed along with seven other Iranians on Nov. 9 and returned to the country. The U.S. military confirmed on Friday that it had freed an Iranian national who had been arrested and kept in custody in Iraq since 2004.
Al-Hakim said, “Technical problems which have delayed the talks are being resolved.”
Iran has agreed with a fourth round of talks with the United States on Iraq’s security condition.
The Iranian and U.S. ambassadors to Iraq, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi and Ryan Crocker, met on August 6 in Baghdad for their third round of security talks. The first and second rounds of negotiations were held in Baghdad on May 28 and July 24.
“Although the outcomes of the past three rounds of Iran-U.S. talks were fewer than what we expected, many effective steps were taken within that framework,” the IIC official stated.
The negotiations have had a great influence on improving security situation in Iraq, he added