Last update - 00:00 28/02/2007
Iraq says neighbors have agreed to attend Baghdad conference
By The Associated Press
Iraq's neighbors including Iran have agreed to join U.S. and British representatives at a regional conference here on the Iraqi security crisis, Iraqi officials said Wednesday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Labid Abawi told The Associated Press that Egypt,
Iran and Saudi Arabia had accepted the invitation, along with the U.S. and Britain, although Russia and France were studying it.
"I don't see any sign they will refuse," he said.
He said the United States, Britain, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran had told the government that they will attend and that the date would be set within two days. Iraqi state television said the tentative date for the conference was March 10.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's adviser, Sami al-Askari, also said
neighboring countries had agreed to come.
Ali Larijani, the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council said that Iranian officials were reviewing the proposal.
"We support solving problems of Iraq by all means and we will attend the
conference if it is expedient," Larijani was quoted by Iranian state TV Web site. "We believe Iraq's security is related to all its neighboring countries, and they have to help settle the situation.
Al-Askari said it would give countries such as the U.S., Iran and Syria to sit down together without paying a political price.
The United States changed positions Tuesday and said it would attend the meeting, setting up the possibility of American talks with Iran and Syria over how to stabilize Iraq.
Egypt will send a representative to a neighbors meeting in Iraq, despite continued disquiet among some of Iraq's Sunni Arab about the country's current direction.
Sunni Arab countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan have been deeply disturbed by what they view as a Shiite bias on the part of Iraq's Shiite led government in recent months, as sectarian violence has flared in the country.
Two Arab diplomats in Cairo said Wednesday that the United States had recently stepped up pressure on some Arab governments to press them to attend the meeting in Baghdad, after they initially had turned down invitation from the Iraqi government for the mid-March meeting.