US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday she would not rule out meeting with her Iranian counterpart on the sidelines of a multinational conference on Iraq security next week. "I will not rule out that we may encounter each other," she said.
She made clear, however, that Iraq would be the only issue on the agenda of any discussion between the two rivals. "This is not a meeting about the United States and Iran, this is a meeting about Iraq and about what Iraq's neighbours and interested parties can do to help stabilise the situation in Iraq," she told ABC news. Rice suggested that in any encounter, she would repeat US calls on Iran to stop aiding insurgents in Iraq. She said it was "quite obvious" what Tehran would need to do help violence-racked Iraq.
"Stop the flow of arms to foreign fighters. Stop the flow of foreign fighters across the borders. Stop using advanced IED technology to kill American soldiers. Stop stirring up trouble among militias that then go and kill innocent Iraqis. "It's quite clear what needs to be done," she said.
US policy on Iran, with which it has not had diplomatic relations since the 1979 Iranian revolution, has been evolving recently. Originally, President George W. Bush refused all contact with Tehran, but later agreed to join multilateral talks aimed at ending its nuclear program. Now he is suggesting bilateral talks on Iraq may be possible.
Bush last week said Rice might meet with the Iranian foreign minister when ministers from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the Group of Eight and Iraq's neighbours at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on May 3 and 4.
He asserted, however, that there would be no one-to-one talks outside such a forum. Asked in an interview with PBS television whether Rice might have "bilateral conversations" in Egypt with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, Bush replied: "They could."
"I'm more than happy to send our representatives to a regional conference, all aiming at helping the Iraq government gain credibility in the international community," he said. "What I'm not willing to do is sit down bilaterally with the Iranians."