Iraq, Iran hold historic talks

TEHRAN - Jalal Talabani, the first Iraqi president to visit Iran for nearly four decades, received assurances on Monday that Tehran supported its neighbour's transition to democracy.

Shi'ite Muslim Iran has repeatedly been accused of meddling in post-war Iraq, with Western and Iraqi officials charging Iran with allowing weapons and insurgents to cross its borders.

But Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said such accusations were unfounded and voiced by those who did not want better ties between Baghdad and Tehran, who fought each other to a standstill in a 1980-1988 war.

"Such accusations will definitely not affect the expansion of relations between Iran and Iraq," he told reporters after a meeting with Talabani, the first Iraqi leader to visit Tehran since the late 1960s.

"A popular, independent and developed Iraq will be the best friend of the Iranian nation," Ahmadinejad said.

"We totally support the political process that the Iraqi nation is undergoing that will ... guarantee its territorial integrity, independence and progress," he added.

Talabani, who will meet Iran's foreign minister and top security official on Tuesday, said his visit was aimed at strengthening political and commercial ties.

"We are sure that we will enjoy the Iranian government's cooperation in our struggle against terrorism," said Talabani, accompanied by National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie.

SENSITIVE SUBJECTS

Although Iranian and Iraqi officials were likely to hold cordial discussions on intelligence and security cooperation and efforts to stop insurgents and weapons from crossing their border, discussions will touch on sensitive security subjects, an adviser to Rubaie said on Monday.

"This issue will be raised in talks. Dr Rubaie has been very candid in previous talks on the supply of weapons to militias," said the adviser, who asked not to be named.

Rubaie held talks in Iran last week when both sides signed a security agreement designed to improve cross-border cooperation.

Iran's influence in former war-foe Iraq is one of the most volatile issues fuelling sectarian tensions between Sunni Arabs once dominant under Saddam Hussein and long-oppressed Shi'ites empowered after January elections.

Sunnis, whose community is leading an insurgency against the U.S.-backed government, see Shi'ite Iraqi leaders such as Islamist Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari as Iranian puppets because they were exiled in the Islamic Republic.

Washington and London have long accused Iran of fomenting unrest in Iraq but Britain made more detailed allegations in October, saying Iran's Revolutionary Guards supplied weapons to Shi'ite militia in Iraq used to attack British troops.

They said attacks in Iraq were carried out with armour-piercing explosives previously used by Lebanese Hizbollah, which is linked to Iran.

Britain also suspects that Iran has backed "Sunni elements" in Iraq, as well as the Shi'ite militia with which it has sectarian ties, an official said.

All allegations have been denied by Iran.

- REUTERS