'Cordial' meeting for U.S., Iran officials

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - In a cautious first step toward unlocking 30 years of tense relations, senior U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke had a brief but cordial meeting with Iran's deputy foreign minister Tuesday at an international conference on Afghanistan.

The rare diplomatic approach was the first official face-to-face interplay between the Obama administration and the Iranian regime. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton cautioned that the brief talks between Holbrooke and Iranian diplomat Mehdi Akhundzadeh were cordial but not "substantive."

"They agreed to stay in touch," Clinton said at the close of a one-day conference on Afghan security and development that was designed partly to allow the diplomatic turn with Iran. She told NBC News, "We think there is room for more engagement with Iran going forward."

The meeting between Holbrooke, President Barack Obama's hand-picked Afghanistan envoy, and Akhundzadeh came on the sidelines of a session aimed at improving Afghanistan's future prospects. Akhundzadeh pledged to help the reconstruction of its neighbor, but he criticized U.S. plans to send more troops into Afghanistan.

The gathering was being closely watched for signs that the U.S. and Iran can work together on a common problem after years of hostility. The two countries cooperated at a distance in 2001 and 2002 after U.S.-led forces ousted Afghanistan's Taliban government.

The U.S. and Iran have been estranged for 30 years, since young Iranians stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took more than 50 Americans hostage for 444 days. Representatives of the two nations are rarely even in the same room with one another, but they have had accidental-on-purpose public meetings on the sidelines of other international gatherings.

Letter for Iran
The face-to-face pleasantries, along with a diplomatic letter hand-delivered to the Iranian delegation by a U.S. official, were carefully calibrated overtures from the Obama administration aimed at testing the clerical regime's willingness to take larger steps.

Video   We shouldn't 'ignore' Iran March 31: U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke tells NBC's Andrea Mitchell that it's "illogical to exclude an important neighbor from discussions on Afghanistan." Nightly News

Afghanistan and Iran share nearly 600 miles of border, and Clinton said the United States and Afghanistan share concern over the flow of drugs into Iran.

"We will look for ways to cooperate with them and I think the fact that they came today, that they intervened today, is a promising sign that there will be future cooperations," she said.

The diplomatic letter, which Clinton and aides would not describe in detail, asked for Iran's help in releasing or lifting travel restrictions on two American women in Iran, and information on a man missing for two years since traveling to Iran on business.

The cases and the American position on them were known. What is different was the Obama administration's decision to approach Iran directly, instead of using a go-between.

Information or help from Tehran "would constitute a humanitarian gesture by the Iranians in keeping with the spirit of renewal and generosity that marks the Persian new year," Clinton said.

Obama recently sent an unusual video message to mark the Iranian new year in March.

MORE FROM SOUTH & CENTRAL ASIA

South & Central Asia Section Front

Obama to reveal Afghan decision ‘within days’ Indian PM says Pakistan must reject terror U.S. gives millions as Afghans target poppies Bombings, shootings kill 12 in Afghanistan Filling a gap in Pakistan's school system NYT: Officials see hope in anti-Taliban militias Afghan road builder hits a violent dead end India's PM arrives for state visit to U.S. South & Central Asia Section Front   Add South & Central Asia headlines to your news reader: