U.S., Iran envoys likely to meet

The purpose of the conference is to work toward stabilizing Iraq.
MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The Iraqi government is trying to arrange a potentially groundbreaking meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Iranian counterpart on the sidelines of a key conference on Iraq due to take place in Egypt later this week, Iraqi officials said Sunday.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Iraqi officials have been conducting a behind-the-scenes effort to persuade the U.S. and Iran, Iraq's two chief allies but themselves bitter foes, to schedule a bilateral meeting during the conference Thursday and Friday at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, and he said he is optimistic the initiative will succeed.
"We expect a meeting between Iran and the U.S., and this might help us in Iraq," he said. "We are working hard to have this meeting and we are optimistic it will happen."
Speaking on CNN's "Late Edition" on Sunday, Rice did not rule out the possibility of holding a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, suggesting a thaw may soon be possible in the deeply hostile relationship between Iran and the U.S.
"I don't rule out that we'll encounter each other," Rice said when asked whether a bilateral meeting was likely at the conference.
Iran's announcement
After weeks of hesitation, Iran had announced earlier Sunday that it would attend the conference, which is intended as a forum for Iraq's neighbors, along with the United Nations, the U.S. and the rest of the G8, to establish a regional consensus on ways to stabilize Iraq.
Without Iran, Iraq's largest and most influential neighbor, it is unlikely any serious progress could have been made. Topping the U.S. agenda for the meeting is America's allegation that Iran is helping fuel the violence in Iraq by facilitating the supply of weapons, money and sophisticated bombmaking techniques to insurgents.
Iran had previously said it would not attend unless the U.S. released five Iranians detained by American forces in Irbil in January, one of a series of events earlier this year that sent tensions skyrocketing between the historic foes and triggered regional fears that a new war was imminent.
According to U.S. officials in Baghdad, Iraqi officials had been pressuring the United States to free the five detainees so that Iran would attend the conference. But Rice insisted the U.S. had made no promises to release the Iranians, whom the U.S. claims are senior members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Iran insists are diplomats.
Shortly after the announcement that Iran would attend, Iran's chief national security official, Ali Larijani, arrived unexpectedly in Baghdad for three days of talks with Iraqi officials, focused on the conference agenda.