Iran open to new Iraq talks with U.S.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's foreign minister said Monday his country would be open to holding further talks with the U.S. over Iraq's security, while also criticizing the U.S. for not having a "plan to overcome the current crisis," state-run media reported Monday.

The U.S. and Iran held groundbreaking ambassador-level talks on May 28 in Baghdad, which Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said had "revealed very interesting points," according to the Web site of Iran's state broadcasting company.

"Iran would consider further talks if Iraqi officials make a request for such talks," Mottaki was quoted as saying in response to a question about the possibility of another round of negotiations between Iran and the U.S. in Baghdad.

Mottaki said the talks could be held after assessing the results of last month's meeting.

Iran's semiofficial ISNA news agency also quoted Mottaki as saying Monday that "Iran will review a probable request (by Iraqi officials for talks with the U.S) with a positive outlook."

However, in the state television report, Mottaki was also critical of U.S. policy in Iraq, saying American authorities "don't seem to have any plan to overcome the current crisis."

"The U.S. faces a real dilemma in Iraq due to the wrong policies it has adopted," Mottaki was quoted as saying by the broadcasting company's Web site.

Mottaki's comments come as tensions have risen between Iran and the U.S. over Tehran's detention of four Iranian-Americans charged with endangering national security. The U.S. has demanded Iran release the four, saying the charges against them are false.

Iran is also enraged over the detention of five Iranian officials by U.S. forces in Iraq earlier this year, with Mottaki saying last week the U.S. would "regret" the move.

Iran considers the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq as a threat to its security and has demanded they leave. Washington, meanwhile, accuses Shiite Iran of arming and financing Shiite militias fighting American and Iraqi troops in Iraq ? charges Iran denies.

The U.S. and Iran are also at odds over Tehran's nuclear program, which Washington and its allies contend is aimed toward making nuclear weapons and Tehran insists is peaceful.

However, Mottaki said earlier this month after meeting with Iraq's deputy prime minister that Iran would respond to a continuation of talks with the U.S. "with a positive point of view."

On Monday, ISNA reported that Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of Iraq's biggest Shiite Muslim party, who is in Iran for cancer treatment, was also pushing for new talks.

"Everyone (in Iraq) understands the positive impacts of negotiation on the Iraqi situation, especially in the field of security," the news agency quoted al-Hakim as saying.

The May talks represented the first formal, scheduled meeting between Iranian and American officials since the United States broke diplomatic relations with Iran following the Nov. 4, 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by radical students.

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