TURKEY: Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki arrives in Ankara to discuss Iraqi border security with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki arrives in Ankara to discuss Iraqi border security with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki arrived for an unexpected visit to Ankara on Thursday (November 1) to hold talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan after the Iraqi government called on Iran to help avert a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq. "I came to Turkey for simultaneous consultations and regional cooperation for both countries (Iran-Turkey). I met Turkish Foreign Minister Babacan in Tehran last week. I am in Turkey to attend to the Iraqi neighbouring countries meeting to discuss especially the latest developments in northern Iraq," Mottaki told reporters waiting for him at the airport. After the meeting Mottaki is expected to head to Istanbul for a three-day meeting of Iraq's neighbours including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. On Wednesday (October 31) Mottaki visited Iraqi leaders in Baghdad and said Iran was willing to hold further talks with the United States on improving security in Iraq. Mottaki also said Iran would present a plan on Iraq at the Istanbul meeting this weekend but gave no details of what it would propose. Washington has said it is open to the possibility of fresh talks with its long-time foe, whom it accuses of fuelling Iraq's sectarian violence by arming and funding Shi'ite militias. Iran denies the charge. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said there were no plans for further talks at the ambassadorial level or between U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and any Iranian officials at the Istanbul conference this week. The United States last week imposed sanctions on more than 20 Iranian companies, major banks and individuals and designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and its Quds Force a supporter of terrorism. The U.S. military says the Quds Force is supplying rockets, mortars and sophisticated roadside bombs to Shi'ite militias in Iraq to kill American soldiers and weaken the Iraqi government.

ITN Source | November 2, 2007

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