IRAN:Iran will attend a conference of key powers including the US this week that will focus on stabilising Iraq, a meeting Iraqi foreign minister Hoshiyar Zebari said might be a turning point for regional co-operation to ease the violence in Iraq.
Mr Zebari said yesterday there was a "high possibility" the US and Iran would hold bilateral talks at the conference in Egypt on May 3rd and 4th, although not necessarily at ministerial level.
The conference will bring together Iraq's neighbours, including Syria, as well as officials from G8 nations and the EU. It is a follow-up to a meeting of senior officials in Baghdad in March, where Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki urged neighbours to do more to end the conflict in Iraq.
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who will attend the upcoming conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, said she would not rule out the possibility of a meeting with Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki.
"But what do we need to do? It's quite obvious," she told ABC television in the US. "Stop the flow of arms to foreign fighters. Stop the flow of foreign fighters across the borders . . . Stop stirring up trouble among militias that then go and kill innocent Iraqis. It's quite clear what needs to be done."
Tehran said its delegation, headed by Mr Mottaki, would have the the "aim of helping the Iraqi nation and government".
Washington accuses Iran of destabilising Iraq and US officials say Ms Rice would probably limit any discussions to this.
Iran denies meddling in Iraq and blames the US-led invasion in 2003 for the violence that is threatening to tear Iraq apart and spill over into neighbouring countries.
Washington is also at loggerheads with Iran over its nuclear programme. The announcement of Iran's participation followed weeks of intense lobbying by Baghdad.
"It's important, it would be a major breakthrough and any reduction in tensions will positively impact the situation in Iraq," Mr Zebari said about the possible Iran-US talks. "We don't want Iraq to be a battleground for settling scores on other agendas at our cost. Really, this has been harming us, damaging us a lot."
Mr Zebari said Iraq's neighbours had begun to realise how important it was to stabilise Iraq.
"From my contacts, there is a gathering sense of the danger of Iraq failing, of chaos spilling across the region," he said.
Mr Zebari, who visited Tehran last week, said one reason Iran was reluctant to say whether it would attend was due to the detention by US forces of five Iranians in the northern Iraq Arbil.
The US says that they are linked with Revolutionary Guard networks that provide explosives and arms to forces inside Iraq to attack US troops, but Tehran says they are diplomats.