![]() ![]() However, those talks made little practical headway and according to Hoda Abdel-Hamid, Al Jazeera’s Iraq correspondent, a similar result is expected from round two given the recent antagonism between the two countries.Ībdel-Hamid said the talks mark the beginning of a timid dialogue between two countries with vested interests in the future of Iraq. The talks are a follow-up to a meeting in in Baghdad on May 28 that broke a 27-year diplomatic freeze between Tehran and Washington. Iran was represented by Crocker’s counterpart Hasan Kazemi Qomi. The meeting was closed to the press, but photos were released by the office of Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, showed the participants sitting at three tables, one for each delegaton.Īl-Maliki was joined by his foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, while the US delegation was headed by Ryan Crocker, the ambassador to Iraq. Officials from the US and Iran stressed that Tuesday’s ambassador-level talks in the capital’s fortified Green Zone would concentrate solely on Iraq and not address the issues of four American-Iranians currently being detained in Iran or the five Iranian diplomats in US custody in Iraq. ![]() The explosion took place at 9am when the market was crowded and people were on their way to work.Īccording to Eid al-Shammari of the local police “most of the wounded were women and children, and the blast destroyed 15 vehicles and about 20 nearby shops”. Hours before the talks at least 22 people were killed and dozens wounded by a suicide car bombing in a market across the road from a children’s hospital in the centre of the southern city of Hilla. Iranian and US officials have begun rare talks in Baghdad amid heightened tensions between the two countries and ongoing violence in Iraq. ![]() Little practical progress is expected from the talks ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |