U.S. and Iran call Iraqi conference a 'first step.' - International Herald Tribune

WASHINGTON: Both U.S. and Iranian diplomats Sunday cautiously welcomed as an important "first step" the results of the regional meeting in Baghdad that brought a rare face-to-face encounter between the two sides.

The conference Saturday, meant to inject new diplomatic vigor into the search for a solution to the violence in Iraq, came on a day when President George W. Bush approved a significant military step, sending an additional 4,700 troops to that country — many in support roles — on top of 21,500 approved earlier. He will also send 3,500 more troops to Afghanistan.

The Iraq deployment risked leaving the White House further at odds with Democrats, who on Thursday announced a plan for most U.S. troops to leave Iraq by Aug. 31, 2008.

The U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, said of the conference there Saturday, "As a first step, it was a good meeting."

"I did talk to the Iranian across the table, and also I shook hands with him and talked two minutes or so with him," he told NBC-TV in an interview aired Sunday. "But most of the exchanges were across the table, dealing with Iraq issues." He added that there were "no direct bilateral substantive talks other than shaking hands."

In Tehran, a Foreign Ministry spokesman called the conference a constructive "first step" in promoting Iraqi stability. The spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, said that his country hoped a proposed follow-up meeting would be successful, The Associated Press reported.

But the sides also traded accusations — the Americans saying that Iranians had smuggled highly lethal explosives to Iraqi insurgents, the Iranians that the Americans had "kidnapped" a half- dozen Iranian officials who are being held in Iraq.

At one point, the U.S. envoy, David Satterfield, pointed to his briefcase and said it contained documents proving that Tehran was arming Shiite militias in Iraq. Abbas Araghchi, an Iranian deputy foreign minister, retorted, "Your accusations are merely a cover for your failures in Iraq."

The Iranians, Khalilzad said, contended that their officials in U.S. custody were diplomats — five of them based at the Iranian Consulate in Erbil — and should be released.

But Khalilzad said on NBC that the Iranians were associated with the Revolutionary Guards of Iran, "and the Quds Force is part of the Revolutionary Guard, and the Quds Force has been providing some of the weapons that we have talked about."

Still, he said, Baghdad had asked U.S. officials to expedite their investigation, and "we're doing that" — without making promises or setting deadlines.

The ambassador said that he had also asked Syrian officials to crack down on illegal border crossings into Iraq.

The most immediate outcome of the conference was an agreement in principle to form working groups on border security, fuel imports and refugees, and to hold another regional meeting at the foreign minister level, as early as April. Iraq and Iran lobbied for it to be held in Baghdad, while the United States pressed for Istanbul.

The working groups would involve only technical experts from Iraq's six neighbors.

Given the depth of tensions, the Iraqis' greatest achievement seemed to be to get so many countries with frosty relations to sit in the same room. Delegations were also present from other neighboring countries as well as from Bahrain, Egypt, Russia, France, Britain, China, the United Nations, the Islamic Conference and the Arab League.

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq opened the conference with a plea to Iraq's neighbors to back his efforts to control the violence engulfing the country. "Confrontation of terrorism, dear brothers, requires ceasing any form of financial and media support and religious cover, as well as logistical support and provision of arms and men that would turn out to be explosive tools killing our children, women and elders and bombing our mosques and churches," Maliki said.

Despite enormous security preparations and a complete shutdown of roads leading to the Foreign Ministry, where the meeting was held, two mortar rounds landed nearby but caused no casualties.

"This is very normal; it happens all the time," Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said he told the delegates. "I'm surprised there were not more attacks."

Suicide bombers killed at least 30 people Sunday in Baghdad. A car bomber attacked a truck carrying Shiite pilgrims who had celebrated the religious rite of Arbaeen in Karbala, killing 19, Reuters reported. Another suicide bomber blew himself up on a minibus in northeastern Baghdad, killing 10 people.

The Bush administration has recently focused much of its attention on Iran, pressing Tehran to halt its nuclear program and charging that it has not only armed and financed militants throughout the region, but provided Iraqi militants with devastating explosive devices.

Khalilzad said that beyond the rhetoric of the Baghdad meeting, what mattered was what Iran did next.

"We will be monitoring their behavior," he said. "That's what ultimately will count."

Zebari told CNN that he was heartened that the Iranian side had been "willing to discuss" the allegations that Iranians were arming insurgents.

Perhaps seeking to ease pressure on the country, Iranian state television said Sunday that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wanted to brief the United Nations Security Council on Tehran's civilian nuclear plans and its plans to pursue "peaceful nuclear technology."

The Baghdad meeting was generally applauded in Washington, though skepticism persisted that Iran and Syria did not share the U.S. interest in a stable Iraq.

"I don't think you can expect to see a flowering of diplomatic relations in one meeting," said Senator James Webb, Democrat of Virginia, on ABC-TV, "but this is a very important confidence- builder."

Alissa J. Rubin reported from Baghdad.

U.S. and Iran call Iraqi conference a 'first step.' - International Herald Tribune