US: We Will Talk To IranUpdated: 09:29, Wednesday February 28,...

US: We Will Talk To Iran
Updated: 09:29, Wednesday February 28, 2007

The United States is set to hold groundbreaking talks with Iran and Syria next month.

American delegates will attend a conference in Baghdad to discuss the ongoing security crisis in Iraq.

Representatives from Iran and Syria will also attend to discuss ways of bringing stability to the country.

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, said: "We hope that all governments seize this opportunity to improve their relations with Iraq and to work for peace and stability in the region."

The meeting will be seen as a change in emphasis by the US government.


Iraq has been by plagued by violence President Bush publicly rejected the prospect of talking to Iran and Syria about security in Iran after that course of action was recommended to him by the Iraq Study Group, a panel of expert advisers he had appointed.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari welcomed the move, saying: "Our hope is that this will be an ice-breaking attempt for maybe holding other meetings in the future.

"We want Iraq, instead of being a divisive issue, to be a unifying issue."

Washington accuses Iran and Syria of fuelling the violence in Iraq and has spurned previous requests to reach out to both to help stabilise the country.

America is also at loggerheads with Iran over its nuclear programme, accusing Tehran of wanting to create a nuclear bomb.

And after the September 11 terrorist attacks in America in 2001, Mr Bush accused Iran - along with Iraq and North Korea - of forming an Axis Of Evil, helping fuel terrorism around the world.

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