US cannot confirm talks with Iran on Iraq security

The State Department said it could not confirm that US and Iranian officials would meet Thursday in Baghdad for a long-delayed new round of talks on security in Iraq.

In Tehran, the student ISNA news agency reported that an Iranian delegation headed by Reza Amiri Moghaddam had arrived in Baghdad Wednesday for the talks, which would be the fourth time the two foes have sat down to discuss Iraq.

But Tom Casey, the State Department's deputy spokesman, told reporters in Washington that there were only "rumors" of a date and that he had no confirmation from David Satterfield, the department's coordinator for Iraq.

"There's nothing scheduled and we've not heard anything from the Iraqis to indicate that the Iranians have moved forward with a date," Casey said.

"We've been willing to do this for some time. There have been a couple of tentative dates scheduled and in those cases, the Iranians, for whatever reasons, decided that it wasn't convenient for them," Casey said.

"We're still ready to do this at the point when we're informed that the Iranians are willing and able to do so," he added.

When asked if on one occasion the United States found a proposed date inconvenient, he said it was possible.

In Tehran, ISNA quoted Moghaddam as saying the Iraqi government had agreed to host the talks on Thursday in Baghdad.

"Based on an agreement with the Iraqi government, the fourth round of tripartite negotiations on Iraqi security will be held on Thursday with delegations from Iran, Iraq and the United States," he was quoted as saying. More