Iraq is seeking to broker a face-to-face meeting between Iranian and US officials in Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said on Saturday, more than six months after Israeli and US attacks on Iran put bilateral talks on hold.
"Iraq is trying to arrange a bilateral meeting between Tehran and Washington in Baghdad, but the issue needs some reassurances," al-Sudani told Lebanese TV channel Al-Mayadeen.
The Iraqi prime minister said there has been dialogue in more than one place on the issue, but "commitments and the language of threats stand as obstacles."
"Part of my conversation with (US envoy) Tom Barrack when he visited Baghdad, was to bring the views between Tehran and America closer, and he asked me how to deal with the situation, and I told him that it should be treated with respect."
The United States held five rounds of negotiations with Iran over its disputed nuclear program earlier this year, for which Trump set a 60-day deadline.
When no agreement was reached by the 61st day on June 13, Israel launched a surprise military offensive, followed by US strikes on June 22 targeting key nuclear facilities in Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow.
"Iran needs trust, because it is not acceptable to reach an agreement and then, hours later, see an attack take place," Al-Sudani said in his meeting with Tom Barrack, according to his interview with Al-Mayadeen.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in November that US President Donald Trump’s letter to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, sent shortly before the war, explicitly presented two options: continued war and bloodshed, or direct negotiations aimed at completely eliminating Iran’s nuclear enrichment and ballistic missile programs.
Tehran has rejected US demands, saying that uranium enrichment is its inalienable right and that no other country has any say over its missile program.
Earlier this week, the United States and Iran traded sharply worded accusations at the United Nations Security Council, with Washington offering conditional talks while Tehran blamed the standoff on US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal and strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
Speaking during the session, Morgan Ortagus, counselor of the US Mission to the United Nations, said Washington remained open to formal negotiations but only if Iran agreed to direct talks and abandoned uranium enrichment.
“In both administrations, President Trump extended the hand of diplomacy to Iran,” she said. “But instead of taking that hand of diplomacy, you continue to put your hand in the fire. Step away from the fire, sir, and take President Trump’s hand of diplomacy.”
Iran rejected that framing. “We appreciate any fair and meaningful negotiation but insisting on zero enrichment policy is contrary to our rights as a member of the NPT," Tehran's UN envoy Amir Saeed Iravani said.
"Iran will not bow down to any pressure and intimidation.”
