Iran Agrees New Talks with US on Iraq

It will be interesting to see the response of the Bush administration to this Iranian overture. If the Bushies continue to trash talk that proves the administration wants nothing but war with the Persian state. Expect to hear the kind of rhetoric you do from the Israelis when it comes to talk about creating a Palestinian state. They will make a series of impossible demands that assures that peace talks fail. You do not achieve peace by having a series of preconditions. If that were the case, why shouldn't Iran demand the U.S. pullout of Iraq as a condition for peace talks. It ain't gonna happen:

Iran said on Tuesday it has agreed to a new round of talks with United States on improving security in Iraq, despite mounting tensions between the two arch-foes over the Iranian nuclear drive.

The announcement comes after the United States said Iran has stemmed the flow of weapons and militants across the border, amid declining violence in its conflict-torn western neighbour.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Washington had made an offer for the new talks via the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which looks after US interests in Iran in the absence of a US mission.

And nothing came of those talks. Here is a chance for Bush to go down in American history as a peace maker. Then again, Fascists die hard:

Iran and the United States have already held three rounds of talks over Iraq this year. The sheer fact the talks took place despite such an acrimonious history was hailed as a landmark event.

US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Kazemi Qomi have held two sets of face-to-face talks May 28 and July 24, the highest level public contacts between the two sides for 27 years.

The two sides also met at experts level on August 6 but no meeting has been held since then.

It appeared at the time that all the talks failed to achieve a major breakthrough. The discussions were marked by mutual accusations over who was to blame for the violence in Iraq.

Iran says the problems are caused by "occupying" US forces while Washington accuses Tehran of backing Shiite militants and shipping in armour-penetrating bombs for attacks on US troops. Iran has always denied the charges.

But this month there appears to have been an easing of tensions between the two foes over Iraq.