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No Specific Date Set for Iraqi-US-Iranian Meeting- Iraqi FM | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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London, Asharq Al-Awsat- Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has revealed “there is not a specific date for the tripartite Iraqi-US-Iranian meeting” and pointed out that “Iraq, as the state sponsoring the meetings, should propose a new date for holding this meeting but we have not proposed a new date since the last one, 6 March, when they were supposed to meet.”

Talking to “Asharq Al-Awsat” by telephone from Baghdad yesterday, he said: “We were late in sending the invitations due to the bad security situations. We were waiting for the media campaigns and the exchange of accusations between the American and Iranian sides to abate. We believe the meetings should be held in calm atmospheres so as to reach positive results.” He pointed out that “this does not mean that the meeting was cancelled or terminated.”

The Iraqi foreign minister was not optimistic about these meetings and said: “We are not expecting ideal, unreal, or unrealistic results from the two countries, the United States and Iran, after all these decades of disputes and enmities. The topic of these meetings remains limited and American-Iranian relations are not discussed. Yet we can say that the two sides agree in principle on continuing the meetings.” Zebari stressed that “Iraq was and remains clear when raising all issues which concern the two countries. We confronted Iran frankly and with utmost transparency and also the United States about our security problems. We have a firm and strong stand in these meetings which Iraq hosts and sponsors.”