The US and Iran traded accusations over the bloodshed in Iraq Monday during the first high-level direct official talks between the arch-foes in 27 years. US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker accused Iran of fomenting unrest in the country by funneling weapons and training to extremist militias, and called on Tehran to live up to its promises to support stability.His Iranian counterpart, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, however, accused the US military of not doing enough to arm Iraqi government forces and said the Islamic republic was prepared to step in and do this itself.
The first such encounter since the two countries severed diplomatic ties in 1980 lasted four hours, and afterwards Iran's envoy sounded keener on holding further talks than his US counterpart.
Crocker said he had insisted that Iran must back up its stated support for Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki's beleaguered government by halting its backing for armed factions fighting in Iraq. The Iranians proposed creating a trilateral security commission involving Iraqis and US representatives - a suggestion Crocker dismissed. Crocker said the Iranians did not address specific US complaints, but instead criticized the American occupation as a whole and complained that US efforts to train Iraqi security forces were inadequate.
Kazemi Qomi described the meeting as positive but blamed the violence in Iraq on the US military presence. He also offered to arm the Iraqi government.
There had been little expectation that the envoys would see eye-to-eye over the Iraq crisis, with the foreign ministry in Tehran on the eve of the talks accusing US agents of sponsoring subversion in its border provinces. Washington has dismissed similar accusations in the past, but mutual distrust continues to chill Iranian-American relations a quarter-of-a-century after US embassy diplomats in Tehran were held hostage for 444 days.
Maliki, who hosted the talks, emphasized that Iraq did not want to be an arena for foreign powers to settle their differences through violence.
"Iraq will not be a springboard for threats against any of the neighboring countries," he vowed. "In return we look for a similar stance from the other states, especially our neighbors."