Ahmadinejad Stresses Iran’s Support for Iraq

A0242123.jpgTEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here on Wednesday that support for Iraq’s government, integrity and security sets Iran’s definite policy.

The president further reiterated Iran’s assistance with Iraq, and said, “The form of these aids is not important, and it depends on the conditions.”

Ahmadinejad’s words came after the Tuesday meeting between Iranian and US delegations in Baghdad, where ambassadors of the arch foes discussed Iraq’s security.

Earlier today, Iranian foreign minister said that during the second round of talks, the Iranian and US ambassadors to Baghdad have discussed the fate of the Iranian missioners kidnapped during a raid by the US troops on Iran’s consulate general in Erbil as well as security solutions, terrorism and terrorist groups in Iraq.

“Different ideas, including security issues, were raised in the meeting and the two sides decided to discuss the contents of the meeting with their relevant capitals,” the foreign minister added.

Also after the Tuesday meeting between the two sides, Iran’s Ambassador to Iraq Hassan Kazemi Qomi said a discussion of occupiers’ duties in relation to Iraq’s security and stability set the main theme of the second round of Iran-US talks in Baghdad.

Qomi, who heads Iranian delegation in talks with the US, said that during the meeting, he has reminded the American delegation of the duties that the US occupying troops have about Iraq’s security, stability and political process as well as support for the popular government of that country.

The second round of talks in Baghdad on Tuesday was held at ambassadorial level, where Iran’s Hassan Kazemi Qomi met US envoy to Baghdad Ryan Crocker to discuss Iraq’s security issues.

The first round of talks between Tehran and Washington on May 28, which melted the icy relations of the two states after 28 years, was also held at ambassadorial level, where Kazemi Qomi and Crocker discussed the underlying causes of current insecurities in Iraq. During the meeting which was held at the home of Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the Iranian and US delegations did not discuss any bilateral issues and focused merely on Iraq’s problems.

In the Tuesday meeting, Qomi was accompanied by the same officials who helped him in the first round of talks, namely, Director of the Foreign Ministry’s Special Staff for Iraq Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian and Director General of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Reza Amiri.

Earlier Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said that Baghdad supports the talks and that Iraqi government hoped that tangible results would be achieved in the second meeting between Iranian and US delegations.

He said that the Iranian and US ambassadors would discuss Iraq’s issues in the presence of Iraqi officials, where discussions would focus on the situation in Iraq, not US-Iran tensions. Iraqi government has been pressing for another meeting between the two nations with the greatest influence over its future.

The second round of talks between Iran and the US, similar to the first meeting, was held upon Washington’s request.

Check Also

Spotlight on Iran and the Shiite Axis

Senior Iranian officials and the Iranian media expressed acceptance of the collapse of theAssad regime …