The United States is ready "in principle" to have direct talks
with Iran on Tehran's role in Iraq, a senior State Department
official in charge of overseeing Iraq policy said in Washington on
Wednesday.
"With respect to Iran, we are prepared, in principle, to discuss
Iranian activities in Iraq," David Satterfield, senior advisor to
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and coordinator for Iran, told
the Senate committee Armed Services Committee.
"The timing of such a direct dialogue is one we still have under
review."
"We are prepared, in principle, for a direct dialogue with Iran.
The timing of that dialogue is one that we are considering,"
Satterfield said.
Satterfield made the remarks after State Department spokesman
Sean McCormack said on Monday that the Bush administration has
stopped its effort to seek direct contacts with Iran on ways to
ease unrest in Iraq, saying that channel of communications "didn't
work out."
"We went through a period where there was an offer of that
channel of communications," State Department spokesman Sean
McCormack, referring to contacts between the US ambassador in
Baghdad and Iranian authorities.
"It didn't work out for a variety of different reasons,"
McCormack said of the contacts between Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad
and the Iranians, which had been authorized by US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice.
"If in the future we want to avail ourselves of that channel,
then that is certainly a possibility, but I don't think that right
now that is something that is under consideration," McCormack
said.
Prio to McCormack's remarks, US President George W. Bush told
reporters at the White House that Washington will not have direct
talks with Tehran unless it suspends its nuclear program.
Iran refuses US demand and insists its nuclear program is solely
for civilian energy purposes.
US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad was authorized in May
2006 to discuss Iraq with officials in Iran, which Washington has
accused backing anti-US insurgents in Iraq.
Washington and Tehran have severed diplomatic relations since
Iranian students stormed in 1979 the US Embassy in Tehran and held
its occupants hostage for 444 days to protest Washington's refusal
to hand over the toppled shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
(Xinhua News Agency November 16, 2006)
