Iranian president Ahmadinejad to visit Iraq on March 2, despite postponement of US-Iranian security talks

Iranian president to visit Iraq on March 2

www.chinaview.cn 2008-02-14 21:34:24

BAGHDAD, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) --

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Iraq on March 2 to meet top Iraqi leaders, a government spokesman told Xinhua on Thursday.

"I can confirm that March 2 will be the date for Iranian President Ahmadinejad to visit Iraq," Ali al-Dabbagh said. "The Iranian president will meet Iraqi leaders, including President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki," he said.

Ahmadinejad's visit to Iraq is the first ever for an Iranian president to the neighboring traditional foe, particularly after the two countries fought a devastating war between 1980 and 1988, in which about one million people died from both sides.

Editor: Yao Siyan

U.S.-Iranian security talks on Iraq postponed

www.chinaview.cn 2008-02-14 18:05:58

BAGHDAD, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) --

Iran has informed Iraq of its decision to postpone its next round of meeting with the United States over security in Iraq, an Iraqi Foreign Ministry source told Xinhua on Thursday.

"We have learned that Iran told the Iraqi government that it has again asked to delay the meeting with the Americans about security in Iraq," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

He said that Iran neither gave reasons for the delay nor specified a date for the coming meeting.

Iran was scheduled to be held as a fourth round of talks at the expert level with the United States over the Iraqi issue on Friday, the source said.

The U.S. embassy in Iraq was not immediately available for any comment.

It was the second delay of the fourth round of U.S.-Iranian talks over Iraq. Last December witnessed the first postponement of the talk.

The U.S. has been accusing Iran of aiding Iraqi (fighters). But Tehran categorically rejects the allegation. U.S. officials said recently that attacks involving weapons from Iran seemed to be decreasing, but the training and financial support are still there.

Last year, the two countries held two ambassador-level talks on the Iraqi security issue in May and July, and an expert-level meeting in August.

Iran has a strong influence among Iraqi Shi'is. Relations of the two countries, which fought an eight-year war in the 1980s,have picked up since the (US invasion of Iraq) in 2003.

(US-backed) Iraqi leaders have paid several visits to Iran since 2005. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Jan. 28 that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to make a visit to Iraqw ithin two months.

The postponement of U.S.-Iranian talks came two days after a senior commander of the Lebanese Shi'i group Hezbollah, Imad Moughniyah, was assassinated in a car explosion on Tuesday night in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.