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Sharm Al Shaikh: Iran and the United States dashed hopes of a major breakthrough at an international conference convened to stabilise war-torn Iraq when they held only low-level talks yesterday.
The two-day meeting, however, wrapped up after a marked improvement in Washington's strained relations with Iran's traditional Syrian allies.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mua'allem in Sharm Al Shaikh on Thursday - the first contact at this level in more than two years.
Speculation had mounted that Rice could hold historic talks with her Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki. But at a meeting to enhance international cooperation on Iraqi security, Mottaki described US troops as "terrorists" and lashed out at Washington over the detention of Iranian officials seized in January.
"To create a safe haven for those terrorists who try to turn Iraqi territory into a base for attacking Iraq's neighbours should be condemned," the Iranian foreign minister said.
"Mottaki was referring to countries which, like the United States, carry out acts of terrorism in Iraq," a spokesman for the Iranian delegation at the conference said. "When the United States arrests five Iranian diplomats in Iraq, it is an act of terrorism," he said.
Low-level contacts
Rice, whose country broke off diplomatic ties with Iran in 1980, said that if she had had the chance she would also have met Mottaki.
"The opportunity simply didn't arise for the foreign minister of Iran and me to meet ... I would have taken that opportunity," she told a news conference.
"But our officials did ... have an opportunity to exchange views about the substance of this meeting, which is how to help Iraq be more secure," she added.
The US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, played down the meeting, saying he spent just three minutes discussing Iraq with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari welcomed the lower level US-Iran meeting as a "a positive sign".
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