By DPA
Baghdad : Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has said Iran was willing to hold fresh talks with the US over Iraqi security.
Mottaki said late Wednesday he considered an earlier US initiative about dialogue with Iran as a positive step.
The Iranian minister said his talks with the US would focus on Iraq and the US forces there, adding that Iranian diplomats in US custody should be released. He said the Iraqi government should be responsible for their release.
The US had repeatedly accused Iran of inciting violence in Iraq through support of Shia militias. US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker has held talks twice this year with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Kazemi-Qomi about Iran’s role.
US State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack responded that while the “channel” for talks between the two sides remained open, the US had no current plans to pursue that avenue.
Past efforts to reach out to Iran had “yielded little to nothing, if not a worsening of the situation on the part of the Iranian behaviour in Iraq,” McCormack said.
Mottaki arrived Wednesday in Baghdad in a bid to solve the Iraqi-Turkish crisis.
In a joint press conference with Mottaki, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Iraq has achieved substantial progress in its efforts to release the eight Turkish soldiers held hostage by the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) based in northern Iraq.
“We expect this issue will be settled as the talks currently underway through indirect parties have reached an advanced stage,” Zebari said. He did not mention who the parties were.
Zebari said Iraq had not given up hope of reaching a settlement to its crisis with Turkey triggered by the PKK and that it still hoped for a peaceful solution.
“We hope the situation will not escalate,” Zebari said, adding that “the Iraqi government is ready to cooperate and take whatever necessary measures to prevent the PKK from harming Turkey.”
Zebari told reporters in Baghdad the Iraqi government was working hard to contain the crisis with Turkey, cutting off all supply routes to PKK rebels and preventing the rebels from reaching inhabited cities.
Turkey has been threatening to launch cross-border operations to seek out rebels from the PKK, who have been launching attacks on Turkey from the rugged mountains of Qandil in northern Iraq.
The Turkish parliament recently authorised incursions into northern Iraq to hunt down PKK fighters.