U.S. and Iranian Diplomats Meet to Discuss Iraq Security

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• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Gwen Ifill has our story on the U.S.-Iran talks.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Today's four-hour meetings in Baghdad were the highest-level talks between the United States and Iran in decades. The discussions were limited to Iraq, part of U.S. efforts to enlist neighboring countries to help end sectarian violence there.

  U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said afterward he saw positive steps during the meeting, which he said was "businesslike." But Iran rejected one key U.S. complaint: that Iran is supporting militias inside Iraq.

  RYAN CROCKER, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq: We also made it clear, from the American point of view, that this is about actions, not just principles. And I laid out before the Iranians a number of our direct, specific concerns about their behavior in Iraq, their support for militias that are fighting both the Iraqi security forces and coalition forces.

• GWEN IFILL:

  For his part, the Iranian envoy said he proposed forming a committee to help the Iraqi government with security matters. He pressed for a second round of meetings with the U.S. next month.

  For more than a year, American officials have alleged Iran is providing weapons to Shiite Iraqi insurgents, including a particularly deadly device called explosively formed projectiles, or EFPs. Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace described the threat in a briefing earlier this month.

  PETER PACE, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs: There were more explosively formed projectiles this month than any month in the past. To the best of our knowledge, all of them are manufactured in Iran, so that's not a good trend. It still, though, is not possible to point directly to who inside of Iran is supplying those or who has knowledge of those.

• GWEN IFILL:

  But differences between the U.S. and Iran have also been escalating on a host of other issues. Last week, the U.S. increased its military presence in the Persian Gulf, moving nine warships, including two aircraft carriers, into the region for war games.

  And the talks did not address the highly charged issue of Iran's nuclear program. Last Wednesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, said Iran has expanded efforts to enrich uranium, despite international demands they stop. The report also said inspectors are being blocked from sensitive sites.

  The chief U.N. inspector, Mohamed ElBaradei, said the best hope now is to contain Iran's program, not to stop it altogether. "Unchecked," he said, "Iran will complete the program in a few years."

• MOHAMED ELBARADEI, Director General, IAEA:

  Iran, even if it wants to go for the nuclear weapon, they are still not — it will not be before the end of this decade or some time in the middle of the next decade, in other words, three to eight years from now.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a crowd in Tehran the international community is backing down. He spoke last Thursday.

  MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, President of Iran (through translator): Iran has reached the end of the path of benefiting from all nuclear capabilities, and we are near the peak now. The resistance of our enemies has already been weakened and will be weakened day by day.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Iran has insisted its nuclear program is designed to generate electricity, but the U.S. and others say it's for weapons.

  At a Rose Garden news conference last week, President Bush called again for stepped-up United Nations sanctions directed against Iran.

  GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States: They continue to be defiant as to the demands of the free world. The world has spoken and said, you know, "No nuclear weapons programs," and yet they're constantly ignoring the demands. My view is that we need to strengthen our sanction regime.

• GWEN IFILL:

  The president also condemned Iran for detaining three Iranian-Americans, a subject that was not brought up at today's meetings.

• GEORGE W. BUSH:

  To the extent that these people are picking up innocent Americans, it's unacceptable.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Among those detained: Kian Tajbakhsh, a consultant working for George Soros' Open Society Institute, he was jailed May 11th; Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, she's been under virtual house arrest since December and in prison since early this month; journalist Parnaz Azima, who is prohibited from leaving the country. In January, authorities seized her passport. She works for the U.S.-funded Radio Farda.

  Iran has dismissed calls to free them. Instead, they counter, the U.S. is holding five Iranians as hostages. They were seized in northern Iraq in January. Iranian officials say they're diplomats, but the U.S. charges they're linked to an Iranian group that provides weapons to Iraqi insurgents.