Iraqi Foreign Minister Backs Iran on Nuclear Research

NYT: Iraq supports Iran's right to pursue nuclear research, its new foreign minister said today, taking a position at odds with that of the Bush administration.

The foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, spoke during a visit to Baghdad by Iran's foreign minister, Manoucher Mottaki, that marked the reconciliation of two countries that fought a long and bloody war two decades ago.

Mr. Mottaki also used the occasion to reiterate Tehran's decision to withdraw its request to the United States for talks on stabilizing Iran, and to warn America against using force to resolve the standoff over Iran's nuclear program.

Instead of talks with the United States on bolstering Iraq, Mr. Mottaki spoke of a regional meeting with Iraq's neighbors and Egypt coming together, news services reported.

The statements by Mr. Mottaki and Mr. Zebari, a Kurd, gave the first indication of the foreign policy of Iraq's new government, and of how it might reconcile the sharply differing viewpoints of the groups that make it up. While the Shiite parties that make up the largest bloc in Parliament have long had close ties to Iran, Sunnis and Kurds are far more distrustful of their larger neighbor.

Speaking of the debate over Iran's nuclear program, Mr. Zebari said that Iraq does not want "any of our neighbors to have weapons of mass destruction," according to news services.

But he also confirmed "the right of the republic of Iran and the right of any other state to have scientific and technological abilities to research in the field of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes." Read more