July 24, 2007 (LPAC)--U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Kazemi Qomi met for seven hours today in Baghdad, after which the U.S. announced it had decided to set up a subcommittee to further the process of coordinating ways to establish security in war-torn Iraq. Occurring under heavy security in the Green Zone, the talks were to have been focussed exclusively on the Iraq situation, without reference to the four Iranian-Americans arrested, or the five Iranian diplomats in U.S. custody.
According to a Washington Post wire, Crocker said, "We discussed ways forward, and one of the issues we discussed was the formation of a security subcommittee that would address, at an expert or technical level, some issues relating to security, be that support for violent militias, al-Qaida, or border security." Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the first meeting of the experts could take place the following day, to concretize the plan. Zebari said he hoped "the next round of talks will be on a higher level if progress is made."
Crocker still maintained that Iran is involved in fueling anti-U.S. attacks in Iraq, however, arguing that "militia-related activity that could be attributed to Iranian support" has increased in the two months since the May 28 meeting between U.S. and Iranian representatives. Iranian Amb. Hassan Kazemi Qomi was quoted as saying that Tehran was helping, but that Iraqis were "victimized by terror and the presence of foreign forces" on their territory. "We discussed the creation of a mechanism to implement what we achieved in the first round of talks. They [the Americans] acknowledged making mistakes, and this is a step forward in itself, and it's now up to the Americans to rectify their mistakes," Qomi said.
According to Iranian sources, Tehran's main concern is stabilizing Iraq (and Afghanistan), and it is ready to lend assistance. Iran, according to these sources, can provide crucial intelligence on the terrorist networks in Iraq to the U.S., for example. However, until Cheney's ouster from office, the threat of a new world war can not be ruled out.
