The Iranian- Syrian- U.S.- Iraqi talks in Baghdad at the weekend might -- and it's a very flimsy "might" -- be the beginning of America's road home from its disastrous invasion and occupation of Mesopotamia.
By Robert Fisk, Middle East Correspondent -- The Independent
March 12, 2007 -- The Iranian-Syrian-US-Iraqi talks in Baghdad at the weekend might -- and it's a very flimsy "might" -- be the beginning of America's road home from its disastrous invasion and occupation of Mesopotamia.
The shouting match between Washington's envoy, David Satterfield, and his Iranian opposite number, Abbas Araghchi, should have been warning enough for the Americans that their negotiations will not be easy -- and there will, of course, be a price to be paid. An end to the nuclear "crisis" with Iran? Abandonment of the tribunal into the murder of Lebanese former prime minister Rafik Hariri for whom many blame Syria? But what price would America not pay to scramble out of Iraq?
As if to emphasise the anarchy the delegates were discussing in Baghdad, a suicide car bomber yesterday crashed into a lorry carrying Shia pilgrims back from Kerbala, killing 32 of them. Having passed unscathed through the large Sunni districts around Hilla to the south of the capital, they thought they were safe when they reached the centre of Baghdad. But that was where the car bomber was waiting for them, ramming his vehicle into the tailgate of the truck which was loaded with up to 70 men and boys. Many of them were burned to death.
Interestingly, it was the Iranian Foreign Ministry -- rather than the U.S. State Department -- which went out of its way to praise the Baghdad talks as a first step to restore security in Iraq. "Leaving security affairs to the Iraqi government, arranging a timetable for the departure of foreign forces, and taking an impartial approach to all terrorist groups can bring peace and security," the ministry's spokesman, Mohamed Ali Hosseini, said yesterday. A proposed second round of talks -- in Baghdad or Istanbul - may involve Iran's Foreign Minister.
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