Accusations fly at Iraq conference

BAGHDAD -- The United States and Iran traded blame for the violence engulfing Iraq at a conference of Iraq's neighbors Saturday that was hailed as a first step toward resolving the building tensions between the decades-old rivals.

Seated near opposite ends of a large rectangular table, the U.S. and Iranian envoys exchanged accusations of kidnapping, arms smuggling and inciting violence, tempering hopes of an imminent thaw in their relationship.

Though they talked for nearly eight hours, the delegates from 13 nations and three organizations failed to reach agreement on the main item on the agenda: setting a time and a place for their next meeting, to be held at the ministerial level.

Just as the envoys were about to break for lunch, two mortars exploded beside the Foreign Ministry building where the conference was taking place, underscoring the dangers inherent in holding any kind of high-level gathering in Baghdad.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, heading the U.S. delegation, nonetheless hailed the talks as a "constructive first step" toward securing a regionwide consensus on ways to resolve the Iraq crisis that would help heal the regional rivalries that are helping to fuel the conflict. He was seen shaking hands with his Iranian counterpart during the opening session.

The delegates representing Iraq's neighbors, the Arab League, the Islamic Conference Organization and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, issued a joint statement after the meeting agreeing on the need to find ways to improve security.

But they differed over what is causing the violence, with the sharpest exchanges occurring between the U.S. and Iranian envoys.

Iraq developments

Bomb-making cell: U.S. and Iraqi forces captured three suspected members of a bomb-making cell north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said today. The men, who were detained during an air assault Saturday in Tarmiyah, were accused of planting roadside bombs and car bombs in attacks on American and Iraqi troops, the military said.

Iraqi deaths: A suicide car bomber killed 20 people and wounded 50 Saturday in Baghdad's notorious Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City, showering shrapnel over a joint U.S.-Iraqi military outpost. The blast ripped through an Iraqi army checkpoint at a southern entrance to the district, and six of the dead were soldiers. Police said 34 bodies were discovered across Baghdad on Saturday, the likely victims of sectarian death squads. Other bombings and shootings killed at least 15 people.

Sadr City raid: Iraqi special forces backed by U.S. soldiers raided a house in Sadr City and captured six men believed to be rogue members of the Mahdi Army, accused of involvement in kidnappings and killings, the U.S. military said. U.S forces killed a suspected militant and captured 27 others in raids across Iraq, it said.

Al-Qaida suspect: Iraqi officials on Saturday said they were questioning a top al-Qaida figure captured a day earlier in a raid west of Baghdad. The suspect was originally identified by Iraqi officials as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the so-called "emir" of the Islamic State of Iraq. But the Iraqis later said another top al-Qaida leader had been captured.

The Associated Press

The head of the Iranian delegation, Abbas Araghchi, used his opening statement to call on the U.S. to set a timetable for the withdrawal of its forces, accusing Washington of perpetuating the violence by keeping its troops in Iraq.

"We are in fact facing a vicious cycle in Iraq. The presence of foreign forces justifies violence ... and violence is used to justify the presence of foreign forces," he said after the meeting.

In his opening statement, Khalilzad indirectly accused Iran, as well as Syria, of promoting the violence by encouraging the flow of weapons, fighters and money across their borders.

Iran also demanded that the U.S. release six of its "diplomats" held in Iraq.

These include five Iranians detained in Irbil by U.S. forces in January, whom the Americans have described as spies, and a sixth person from the Iranian Embassy who was abducted from a Baghdad street in early February.

The U.S. has rejected Iranian allegations that it was behind the kidnapping.

Khalilzad told the delegates that "the coalition does not have anyone in detention who is a diplomat," according to his statement.

Khalilzad also said he raised the issue of Iranian involvement in the supply to militants of sophisticated roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators, one of the biggest U.S. concerns about Iran's involvement in Iraq.

Responding, the Iranian envoy told journalists: "The Americans are unfortunately suffering from intelligence failures," and called the allegations false.

"They have made so many mistakes in Iraq ... because of the wrong intelligence they had in the beginning. We hope they don't repeat the previous mistakes," he said in a veiled warning to the U.S. not to use the allegations against Iran to justify an attack.