By NNN-IRNA
Tehran : Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini here on Sunday stressed that Tehran’s stands regarding Iraq and its security issues have not changed.
He told reporters during his weekly press briefing that Tehran would examine any suggestion to help restore security in the neighboring country.
On the next round of Iran-US talks on Iraq, he said the Iraqi side is making efforts to prepare the ground for the talks.
“Tehran dispatched a negotiating team to Iraq to hold talks with the US officials on the Iraqi security but the US side was absent without any justification”, Hosseini added
On March 5, an Iranian delegation arrived in Baghdad for the fourth round of talks with the US on Iraq’s security which was due to be held on March 6.
However, the US side announced on the day that it was not well-prepared to attend the trilateral talks on Iraq’s security.
“The talks were expected to be held on Thursday but a few hours before the talks, the Iraqi officials told the Iranian delegation on behalf of the US side that the US was not ready for the talks,” Hosseini told reporters last week.
He added that the US officials have not mentioned any reason for their failure to hold talks.
The fourth round of talks was to be held at the request of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki from Iran.
The Iranian and US officials have so far held three rounds of talks on Iraq situation on May 28, July 24 and August 6, 2007 respectively.