US takes cautious approach to Iran
The United States maintained Thursday its cautious diplomatic approach to Iran by announcing an international conference on Afghanistan with the Islamic Republic likely to be invited.
At her first Nato meeting, held in Brussels, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proposed a high-level conference to define a better way to foster reconstruction and democracy and halt a damaging Taliban-led insurgency.
She said that she hoped the meeting, set for March 31, "could provide an opportunity to reach a common set of principles, perhaps embodied in a chairman's statement, on a common way forward."
She did not say where the meeting would be held, but only that Afghan and Pakistani officials would be invited, with Nato allies, donors, international organisations and "key regional and strategic" nations.
It was only after a remark by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who said that he hoped Iran would be invited, and when questioned that Clinton mentioned the Islamic Republic in public.
"If we move forward with such a meeting, it is expected that Iran would be invited as a neighbour of Afghanistan," she told reporters, after meeting here with her Nato counterparts.
By declaring that the United States would sit side by side with Iran by the end of the month, Washington is making an important gesture toward Tehran, with whom US President Barack Obama has pledged to engage in dialogue with.
But the meeting will be held under United Nations auspices, which could allow Washington to deny any responsibility should the conference fail, or the invitation be rejected.
"We are in the process of discussing with the UN the possibility that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon could open the conference and that his special representative for Afghanistan Kai Eide could chair the meeting," Clinton said.
To put even more distance between them, the conference venue is likely to be in The Hague or Brussels, according to senior Nato officials.
In December, Iran shunned a similar French-hosted conference, failing to send its envoy to Paris for an event aimed at persuading Afghanistan's neighbours to play a greater role in restoring stability in the war-torn state.
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