BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iran agreed Sunday to join the U.S. and other countries at a conference on Iraq this week, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki emphasized the need for other countries to cooperate, saying that violence could spill beyond Iraq’s borders.
The conference Thursday and Friday at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik is the latest attempt to convene countries in the region, along with members of the U.N. Security Council, to discuss ways to reduce the turmoil in Iraq.
The meeting also potentially provides a rare opportunity for direct talks between U.S. and Iranian officials. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to attend the summit, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told al-Maliki in a phone call that a delegation from his country would participate, al-Maliki’s office said in a statement.
Rice, speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” said she “wouldn’t rule … out” meeting directly with Iran’s foreign minister at the summit. Should they meet, Rice said, she would ask the Iranians to “stop the flow of arms to foreign fighters” and to “stop the flow of foreign fighters across the borders.”
Al-Maliki’s national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, said on Sunday that the U.S. has not provided Iraq with any “solid evidence” that Iran is arming fighters in Iraq.
Iraqi leaders had been pressing for the Iranians to attend the Egypt meeting for weeks, but Iran refused to commit, in part because of fears that it would come under pressure from the U.S. and others about its nuclear program.
In addition, the Iranians have been lobbying for release of five Iranians held by the U.S. in Iraq since January. The U.S. has accused the five of links to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard unit that arms and trains Shiite extremists in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Also Sunday, in western Iraq, U.S.-led troops detained 72 suspected insurgents and found materials used to make bombs, including nitric acid, the U.S. military said in a statement. The suspects were detained in a series of raids across Anbar and Salahuddin provinces.
In the southern city of Basra, Iraqi special operations forces with U.S. support captured a “key individual linked to alleged death squad activity and attacks against the coalition forces,” the U.S. military said in a statement.
The detainee is believed to be linked to the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The U.S. military said the unnamed individual was allegedly responsible for supplying weapons and money to the militia and helping to recruit new members.
Iraqi police reported at least 52 people were killed or found dead Sunday, a relatively low figure in recent weeks.
They included five people killed in a car bombing in Basra and 10 men whose bullet-riddled bodies were found dumped in various parts of Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.
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