TEHRAN, 30 August 2004 — Iran and Iraq want to bury the past and start a new era of neighborly relations, visiting Iraqi interim Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih said yesterday.
“The Iraq of (former Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein just wanted to create tensions with Iran, the new Iraq however wants expansion of good neighborly relations and, especially, peace with Iran,” the news agency IRNA quoted him as saying.
“We have decided to settle the disputes of the past and follow a new policy based on common ground between the two states,” Salih added after his talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi.
Kharrazi said the two neighbors had agreed not to dwell on the past but to deal with issues that could serve mutual interests in the future. “Iran wants peace, stability and a democratic system in Iraq and considers relations with Baghdad as highly important for the country,” Kharrazi said.
The two sides also discussed the fate of an abducted Iranian diplomat. Kharrazi said he hoped Iraqi interim government could help expedite his release.
A spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry said the talks were in preparation for a visit by interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi at a date still to be set. “I hope that the visit of Prime Minister Allawi will take place at the earliest possible time,” IRNA quoted Salih as saying.
The two sides did not refer to allegations by Baghdad that Iran has been interfering in Iraqi internal affairs, especially in Shiite regions in southern Iraq.
Salih is accompanied by Iraqi Interior Minister Falah Al-Naqib and Minister of State for Provinces Wael Abdul Latif.
Earlier, Allawi said in an interview with Iraq’s state-run Iraqiya television, broadcast late Saturday, “We have to start building clear and frank relations based on not interfering in the two countries’ internal affairs.”
Salih will “present the facts to our brothers in the Iranian leadership and clarify some misunderstandings so that relations are based on love and brotherhood,” Allawi said. “There are negative elements and tensions which run contrary to the interests of both countries.”
Salih, a Kurd from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), also politely evaded the topic of Iranian interference in Iraq, and was quoted by IRNA as saying he was “carrying a message of friendship from the Iraqi government and nation for the Iranian government and people.”
US Officially Informs Iran of National Held in Guantanamo
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said yesterday it had been officially informed by the United States that one of its nationals detained in Afghanistan is being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
“We asked the Americans to give us information and they have done so,” spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.
He did not say how the matter was communicated, but in the absence of diplomatic relations the two sides generally use the Swiss embassy in Tehran as an intermediary.
