Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday that there's
no need to hold talks with the United States on Iraqi issues since new Iraqi
leaders were elected.
"We believe with the establishment of a stable government in Iraq, there is
no need to do so," Ahmadinejad told a press conference.
In mid March, Iran said that it was ready to hold talks with Washington to
solve Iraqi problems as proposed by Iraqi Shiite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim.
In response, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has appointed the U.S.
ambassador to Baghdad Zalmay Khalilzad to contact Tehran for direct talks on
Iraq.
Iran has also said that its officials were going to hold talks with the U.S.,
but has stood back from that position in recent days since the tensions between
Iran and America intensified after Ahmadinejad's declaration of nuclear
technology leap.
Iran and the U.S. severed diplomatic ties since Iran's Islamic revolution in
1979.
Washington accused Iran of allowing weapons and insurgents to cross into Iraq
while Iran urged the U.S. to pull troops out of Iraq.
