![](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/02\/ali_khamenei.jpg\" "\\"ali_khamenei\\"")
NCRI – Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq told the Obama administration this month that the Iranian regime was interested in direct talks with the United States on the regime’s nuclear program, Western officials said Thursday.<\/p>\nNCRI – Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq told the Obama administration this month that the Iranian regime was interested in direct talks with the United States on the regime’s nuclear program, Western officials said Thursday.<\/p>\n
“In a meeting in early July with the American ambassador in Baghdad, Maliki suggested that he was relaying a message from Iranian officials and asserted that Hassan Rouhani, Iran\u2019s incoming president, would be serious about any discussions with the United States,” according to accounts of the meeting publish in the Times.<\/p>\n
“Although Mr. Maliki indicated that he had been in touch with confidants of Iran\u2019s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he did not disclose precisely whom he was dealing with on the Iranian side. Some Western officials remain uncertain whether Iran\u2019s leaders have sought to use Iraq as a conduit or whether the idea is mainly Mr. Maliki\u2019s initiative,” the reports said.<\/p>\n
State Department officials declined to comment on Mr. Maliki\u2019s move or what steps the United States might have taken in response.<\/p>\n
However Patrick Ventrell, a State Department spokesman was quoted as saying: \u201cAs we have repeatedly said, we are open to direct talks with Iran in order to resolve the international community\u2019s concerns about Iran\u2019s nuclear program.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea of direct talks including with Iraqis acting as facilitator is not something new.<\/p>\n
Talks were held in Baghdad, but they were focused on the conflict in Iraq and the Iranian regime’s support for armed groups there \u2014 not the nuclear question \u2014 and got nowhere.
The Iranian regime\u2019s supreme leader Ali Khamenei warned Sunday that Washington was \u201cnot trustworthy\u201d enough to forge diplomatic ties with.<\/p>\n
The remarks came after some U.S. officials and a group of lawmakers urged diplomacy with Iranian regime’s incoming president Hassan Rouhani.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said at the beginning of the (Iranian) year that I am not optimistic about negotiations with the US, though in the past years I did not forbid negotiating (with them) about certain issues like Iraq,\u201d he told regime’s officials at an \u201ciftar\u201d evening meal that breaks the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Americans are … not trustworthy and they are not honest in their encounters… The stance of American officials over past months once again confirms that one should not be optimistic,\u201d he said at the iftar, attended by Hassan Rouhani and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.<\/p>\n
Khamenei has the final say in the Iranian regime\u2019s major policy issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NCRI – Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq told the Obama administration this month that the Iranian regime was interested in direct talks with the United States on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[175],"class_list":{"0":"post-14247","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran-a-world","8":"tag-updated"},"yoast_head":"\n