Iran planning to negotiate turmoil in Iraq with U.S.

TEHRAN, Iran – In what appears to be a major turnaround in policy, Iran’s national security chief announced Thursday that his government intends to name a team of negotiators to hold direct talks with the United States on the subject of calming civil strife in Iraq.

If negotiations take place, they would mark the first direct, open contact between the two governments since shortly after Iran’s Islamic revolution in 1979.

An aide to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the talks could lead to discussions of other differences between the U.S. and Iran, including the dispute over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which the U.N. Security Council took up this week.

In Washington, however, White House spokesman Scott McClellan stressed that any contacts would be limited to the topic of Iraq. He played down the significance of the Iranian announcement and said that he is not sure he would even characterize it as the start of “a dialogue.”

The Bush administration had said last year it was willing to engage in limited discussions with Iran about how to maintain peace in Iraq, with the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, authorized to speak to the Iranians. But until Thursday, Iran had rebuffed the overtures.

The timing of Iran’s acceptance, just when Iran is facing possible international action at the United Nations, suggested that the Iranians may be seeking to link any help to the U.S. in calming Iraq with the nuclear issue.

But the Bush administration said the issues should not be linked.

“This is a very narrow mandate dealing specifically with issues relating to Iraq,” McClellan said of the proposed talks. The question of Iran’s nuclear program, over which Iran is facing increasing international pressure, was a “separate issue” to be dealt with at the U.N., he added.