BAGHDAD, 25 July 2007 — The United States yesterday accused Iran of stepping up its alleged support of armed groups in Iraq in the two months since the arch foes’ began talks aimed at finding a way to quell the fighting.
The US ambassador to Iraq said Iran, despite professing support for the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, has deepened its assistance to rogue militias.
Iraqi leaders, including Maliki, put a positive spin on the second face-to-face encounter between the three parties since May, hailing what they said was the creation of a tripartite security committee. But US envoy Ryan Crocker downplayed the importance of the panel, and insisted that Tehran should be judged by results on the battlefield.
“We have actually seen militia-related activity with Iranian support go up and not down,” Crocker told reporters, referring to the period since the Iranian, Iraqi and US delegations last met on May 28.
The talks were hosted by Maliki in his offices inside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone — and area which US commanders say is bombarded daily with Iranian-made shells. He began the meeting with a brief speech.
“We hope to see your support in stabilizing Iraq. We do not want to see Iraq interfering in the affairs of others, nor do we want anyone to interfere in its internal affairs,” Maliki said, according to a statement from his office.
Both the United States and Iran expressed their support for the Iraqi government’s “efforts to provide security and stability, to fight terrorism, hunt outlaws,” Maliki said in a statement released by his office. The US was represented by Crocker, while Tehran’s envoy Hassan Kazemi Qomi headed the Iranian delegation in the talks attended by a delegation of Iraqi officials led by Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
As at May’s meeting, officials said the talks had only dealt with the security situation in Iraq, leaving aside a roster of other disputes between the United States and the Islamic republic. After the meeting Iraqi officials announced that the three sides had agreed to form a tripartite security committee to fight Al-Qaeda in Iraq, support the Iraqi government and increase security along the Iran-Iraq border.
