Report: US, Iranian Delegations Secretly Met in Northern Iraq
Talks aimed at reducing tensions on both sides
Jason Ditz
Iraqi officials have expressed major concern about being sucked into a US-Iran War, and so it is unsurprising that new reports of the two nations having held some secret talks put the location of the meeting in northern Iraq.
Details are scant. The two delegations reportedly met in a hotel in Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. The Iranian delegation was led by Hassan Khomenei, the grandson of the former supreme leader, along with the nation’s special envoy to Iraq and two officials from the Revolutionary Guard Corps. There was no word on which US officials were present.
Nor indeed was there any word from either side on the results of thee talks. Iran had rejected the idea of talking with the US just a week prior unless the US lifted sanctions on them, while US calls for talks are all hinged on implications that Iran was ready to make concessions.
Instead it seems their diplomatic hardball with one another was more likely overcome by Iraq, a nation they both want good relations with, and which has grown increasingly impatient with the two nations’ acrimony so often threatening to bring war to Iraqi soil.
Details are scant. The two delegations reportedly met in a hotel in Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. The Iranian delegation was led by Hassan Khomenei, the grandson of the former supreme leader, along with the nation’s special envoy to Iraq and two officials from the Revolutionary Guard Corps. There was no word on which US officials were present.
Nor indeed was there any word from either side on the results of thee talks. Iran had rejected the idea of talking with the US just a week prior unless the US lifted sanctions on them, while US calls for talks are all hinged on implications that Iran was ready to make concessions.
Instead it seems their diplomatic hardball with one another was more likely overcome by Iraq, a nation they both want good relations with, and which has grown increasingly impatient with the two nations’ acrimony so often threatening to bring war to Iraqi soil.
posted by Satish Sharma at
11:11
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