Iranian FM Mottaki: Ahmadinejad accepted invitation to visit Iraq - Haaretz

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Mon., August 20, 2007 Elul 6, 5767

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		Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attending an official meeting in Tehran earlier this month. (Reuters)

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Last update - 23:04 19/08/2007

Iranian FM Mottaki: Ahmadinejad accepted invitation to visit Iraq

By Reuters

TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accepted an invitation to visit neighboring Iraq, Iran's foreign minister said on Sunday.

This move is not like to be welcomed by the United States.

Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki said Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had invited Ahmadinejad after Maliki visited Tehran on Aug. 8-9, but added a final decision had yet to be taken.

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"When a definite decision about the trip is made, the timing will be announced to the public," Mottaki told reporters in the northeastern city of Mashhad, according to the ISNA news agency.

With Shiite Muslims now also in power in Baghdad, ties have strengthened between the two oil-rich states since 2003, when U.S. forces toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Arab who waged an eight-year war against Shiite Iran in the 1980s.

The U.S. military accuses the Islamic Republic of arming and training militias behind some of the violence ravaging post-Saddam Iraq.

Iran rejects the charge and blames the presence of U.S. forces, numbering about 162,000, for the mayhem.

Tehran and Washington, which have not had diplomatic ties since shortly after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, are also at loggerheads over its disputed nuclear program. Iran denies Western accusations the program is aimed at building atom bombs and insists it is being developed for peaceful purposes.

Baghdad has urged both Iran and the United States to negotiate and not fight out their differences on Iraqi soil, and the two arch-foes held landmark talks in Baghdad in May and July on ways to improve security in Iraq.

Some analysts say the two old foes, despite their mutual accusations, have a shared interest in ending the violence in Iraq. Iran wants a friendly government running a stable country while a secure Iraq would enable the United States to pull out.

Mottaki said that in regard to the existing situation in Iraq, the two sides' "attitude had become very logical and realistic", ISNA said.

"We understand America's conditions in Iraq," he was quoted as saying, suggesting the outcome of the talks would depend on coming up with practical steps and correcting U.S. policies there. "In this regard we are not without hope."

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1.	Bye Bye Shat Al Arab??	23:12	\|	PETER SM	19/08/07

2.	final decision had yet to be taken	23:14	\|	Mary	19/08/07

3.	If Sunni insurgents had any integrity they`d assassinate him	23:14	\|	McQueen	19/08/07

4.	A stable Iraq would enable the U.S. to attact Iran	23:29	\|	Sam	19/08/07

5.	And what did anyone expect?	00:31	\|	Mark Lincoln	20/08/07

6.	Ahmadinejad vist to iraq	00:44	\|	omar	20/08/07

7.	wise decision	01:06	\|	indrajaya	20/08/07

8.	Iraq and Iran both hate America	01:27	\|	Sam	20/08/07

9.	Spitting In The Americans` Face	02:48	\|	Yoram	20/08/07

10.	America`s Sacrifice	03:46	\|	Brod	20/08/07

11.	Maybe they lure him to his timely end?	04:07	\|	Nechama	20/08/07

12.	Indrajaya - what Iran is doing	04:24	\|	Mark Lincoln	20/08/07

13.	What so frustrates the US and Israel	04:30	\|	Mark Lincoln	20/08/07

14.	Sam, in Flint, Michigan	04:31	\|	Mark Lincoln	20/08/07

15.	Yoram why should they not spit in Americaas face?	04:36	\|	Mark Lincoln	20/08/07

16.	Chavez should join them !	04:47	\|	David James Vickery	20/08/07

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