23 July 2007: United Nations -- Iran and the United States had talks for the second time in almost thirty years on July 23, 2007; their first engagement was on May 28, 2007 in Baghdad. The parties met to facilitate a security subcommittee to carry forward their talks on restoring stability in Iraq, the American ambassador Ryan Crocker said.

 

“We discussed ways forward and one of the issues we discussed was the formation of a security subcommittee that would address at a expert or technical level some issues relating to security, be that support for violent militias, Al-Qaeda, or border security,” Ambassador Crocker said after their meeting.

 

From Iranian and American reports, the talks got tense and heated. The U.S. alleges that Iran is undermining the U.S. military effort in Iraq, while Iran claims that violence would cease in Iraq if the Americans would retreat. “It is crystal clear that the main objective behind repetition of such baseless accusations against Iran is to pursue U.S. propaganda fuss and psychological warfare against the country,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammad-Ali Hosseini.

 

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, “we are going to raise the need for Iran to match its actions with its words in seeking strategic stability in Iraq.”