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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Iran postpones Iraq talks with US | Iran postpones Iraq talks with US |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Iran has postponed talks with the US on how to end the violence in Iraq, officials announced, a day before the meeting was to be held. | Iran has postponed talks with the US on how to end the violence in Iraq, officials announced, a day before the meeting was to be held. |
| US and Iraqi officials said Tehran had given no reason for its absence from the planned trilateral talks on Friday. | |
| Three previous sessions have all ended in deadlock, with both sides blaming the other for the continued fighting. | Three previous sessions have all ended in deadlock, with both sides blaming the other for the continued fighting. |
| The US accuses Iran of aiding radical Shia groups in Iraq, while Iran blames the violence on US presence in Iraq. | |
| Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told Reuters news agency on Thursday: "Yesterday we were informed that the Iranians want to postpone this for some time, for some unknown reason." | |
| No progress | |
| There was no immediate explanation from Tehran for the postponement. | |
| A US embassy spokeswoman in Baghdad, Mirembe Nantongo, was quoted by AP news agency as saying: "We have been saying for weeks we are ready to sit down for talks. It is increasingly clear that Iran is not." | |
| Senior officials from the US and Iran held talks in May, July and August last year in the highest level public contacts between the two countries for 27 years. | |
| But all three meetings ended without progress, and violence in Iraq - while at a lower level than it was in 2006 - continues. | |
| In November the US blamed Iranian-backed militants for a bomb attack on a pet market in Baghdad that killed some 13 people. |