Iran to host Iraq security talks
Iran will host a regional conference on Iraq security this weekend, when the Islamic republic is likely to call for a withdrawal of foreign troops from it’s neighbour.
Officials from Iraq’s neighbours, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, Turkey, Egypt, and the Arab League, and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) will attend the meeting.
Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran’s foreign minister, said in June when announcing plans for the event that “the co-operation of these countries on Iraq and security issues will be on the agenda.
“A clear message will be sent from this meeting in that these countries support the implementation of security in Iraq.”
The last such meeting took place in April 2005 in Istanbul with little effect, and a previous meeting in Tehran in November 2004 also failed to yield any significant results.
Majority Shia Iran has seen a reversal of its relations with Baghdad since the US invasion, enjoying close links with a government dominated by Shia and Kurdish figures who in the past had sought refuge in Iran.
But the two sides, as well as Iraq’s neighbours as a whole, remain divided over the source of the violence.