Sunday, May 28, 2006
Iraqi RhetIraq: On Iran's Nuclear Policy
Who: Hoshyar Zebari, Iraqi Foreign Minister
Source: Bloomberg
Quotes: From article titled, "Iraq Says It Backs Iran's Right to Nuclear Program"
Iraq supports Iran's right to use nuclear technology for peaceful means and wants a diplomatic solution to the standoff between the Islamic Republic and the U.S. over uranium enrichment, the Iraqi foreign minister said.
``In our view the Islamic Republic has the right to have nuclear technology as long as it is for peaceful means,'' Hoshyar Zebari said today in a press conference from Baghdad broadcast live by Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based al-Arabiya television station.
Zebari was speaking after meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who ruled out holding direct talks with the U.S. to resolve the standoff over the Iranian uranium enrichment program.
This is the highest-level visit by an Iranian official to Iraq since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won Iran's elections in June last year, Agence France-Presse reported. Mottaki's visit follows the promotion of Iranian charge d'affairs, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, in Baghdad to an ambassador, the first between the two countries since the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. The war left more than 1 million dead.
Mottaki said Iran is keen to see the new Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki succeed.
Source: Bloomberg
Quotes: From article titled, "Iraq Says It Backs Iran's Right to Nuclear Program"
Iraq supports Iran's right to use nuclear technology for peaceful means and wants a diplomatic solution to the standoff between the Islamic Republic and the U.S. over uranium enrichment, the Iraqi foreign minister said.
``In our view the Islamic Republic has the right to have nuclear technology as long as it is for peaceful means,'' Hoshyar Zebari said today in a press conference from Baghdad broadcast live by Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based al-Arabiya television station.
Zebari was speaking after meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who ruled out holding direct talks with the U.S. to resolve the standoff over the Iranian uranium enrichment program.
This is the highest-level visit by an Iranian official to Iraq since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won Iran's elections in June last year, Agence France-Presse reported. Mottaki's visit follows the promotion of Iranian charge d'affairs, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, in Baghdad to an ambassador, the first between the two countries since the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. The war left more than 1 million dead.
Mottaki said Iran is keen to see the new Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki succeed.
