Iran to "assess" US policy at Baghdad meeting

Mar 8, 2007, 17:27 GMT

Tehran - Iran said Thursday that it would 'assess' the United States' Iraq policy at the international conference on Iraqi security and reconciliation in Baghdad on Saturday.

'The Baghdad meeting will be a test for assessing the US policies and see whether the Americans are really after finding solutions or continuing their adventurism,' Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told reporters.

The Baghdad meeting is one of the rare occasions at which Iran would be forced to have vis-à-vis talks with political archenemy United States.

Araqchi did not say whether he would hold talks with the US, but observers believe that he is not sufficiently authorized to hold important talks with the US delegation, making direct talks between the two sides in Baghdad rather improbable.

Iran has so far rejected all US charges of interference in Iraq's internal affairs, especially arming Shiite insurgents against US forces, and constantly stressed it was doing whatever possible to establish security in the war-torn country.

Tehran accuses the US and Britain of conspiring a discord among the Sunni and Shiite sects in Iraq to realize their own political aims, which, according to Iran, were primarily to strengthen the status of Israel in the Middle East.

Iran is however ready to cooperate with the US in defusing the crisis in Iraq, on condition that Washington withdraws its forces from the country.

The ISNA news agency quoted Araqchi as saying that the conference had been an initiative by Iran and was planned to be held at foreign minister level, but it was later decided to hold the conference at deputy foreign minister level.

'The conference should not be a venue for interference in the internal affairs of Iraq but just an effort to aid the Iraqi government in several dimensions, including security,' Araqchi said.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had said on Wednesday that the countries attending the meeting should support the Iraqi government in establishing security rather than interfering in Iraq's internal affairs.

Mottaki had further hoped that the conference would prepare the ground for the 'withdrawal of alien forces' from Iraq.