May 04, 2007

Rice Unlikely To Meet With Iran

Hopes that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice might sit down to talks with Iran at the Iraq conference in Egypt were probably dashed today, when Manouchehr Mottaki spoke out against the U.S. involvement in Iraq. BBC News categorized his comments as "a strong attack against US policy in Iraq, blaming the American presence there for sectarian violence."

Last night Mottaki, Iran's foreign minister, abruptly walked out of a diplomatic dinner -- where he was seated facing Rice -- allegedly because he objected to the revealing clothing of a female violinist playing at the event. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack didn't buy that explanation, however, commenting to the media, "I don't know which woman he was afraid of, the woman in the red dress or the secretary of State."

Rice had more luck with her Syrian counterpart yesterday, meeting for half an hour with Foreign Minister Waleed Moallem after the chief military spokesman in Iraq said Syria was taking steps to reduce militants' border crossings between the two countries.

At the conference today, participating countries drafted a proposal to bring more Sunnis into the political process in exchange for greater support for Iraq's Shiite government.

Posted at 7:39 AM
Posted to: Condoleezza Rice, Iran
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