Iran Fully On Board Democratic Agenda

Iran has formally and publicly endorsed the publicly stated Democratic party agenda to force an American withdrawal from Iraq.

But Iran's deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, Abbas Araghchi, used the occasion to accuse the international forces in Iraq of playing a double game.

"It will help resolve the problem of violence if they set a timetable for withdrawal of their troops from Iraq," he said. He condemned attacks on religious places and gatherings five days after a double suicide attack on a crowd of Shia pilgrims killed at least 117 Iraqis in the central city of Hilla.

The meeting was a "test" of whether the United States was serious in trying to solve Iraq's problems. "Teheran stands ready to help bring peace and stability to Iraq," he said. Earlier, Mr Khalilzad and Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, had called on neighbouring countries to halt the supply of weapons and recruits to sectarian armed groups fighting in Iraq.

How very proud you must be to know you have such fine allies.