Iran-US Talks not on Agenda

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini said that a meeting between Tehran and Washington officials on the sidelines of the upcoming security meeting in Baghdad is not on the agenda. Speaking to reporters during his weekly press conference here on Sunday, Hosseini also declined to confirm Iran’s attendance in Baghdad security talks, and said, “We will attend the meeting in case we think it is a right thing to do.”

He further voiced Iran’s support for any efforts reinvigorating the security and government of Iraq.

Regarding the country’s nuclear case, the diplomat dismissed views that nuclear talks between Iran and the West have come to a dead-end, and said, “We have always stressed the need for negotiations and finding of logical solutions.”

Meantime, he stressed that solutions other than talks will merely complicate the issue, and further voiced Tehran’s readiness to attend prerequisite-free talks with all the member states of the Group 5+1 i.e. the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany.

Underlining Iran’s continued enrichment activities, Hosseini said Iran is prepared to consider and study any official proposal for talks with the US.

Asked about the Middle-East Peace Plan, he said no plan could ever achieve desirable results unless it deals with the historical roots of the Middle East crisis and focuses on a logical, fair and fundamental solution to the problem.

In response to another question about the intentions behind staging of different maneuvers by the Islamic Republic, the spokesman said these war games are conducted in order to test newly home-made military devices in practical conditions and to maintain the preparedness of the Iranian armed forces, reiterating that the military exercises are not aimed to pose a threat to any country.

Elsewhere, the foreign ministry official called on all Iranian pilgrims to pass the country’s borders with Iraq only through the legal channels and border passages and in full coordination with the Iranian Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization.