Iran officials meet 5 Iranians held in Iraq

Iranian diplomats made the first consular visit on Saturday to five Iranians detained by US forces in January, Iraq's foreign minister said, adding he hoped this would lead to more talks between Washington and Tehran.
The US military says the five are linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards and were backing militants in Iraq. Iran has insisted they are diplomats, demanded they be freed and sought access to the men. "Three Iranian diplomats including the ambassador in Baghdad visited the five detainees in Iraq," Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters, adding the visit lasted several hours.
Zebari said he hoped the visit would improve relations between Washington and Tehran, which are also sparring over Iran's nuclear programme. Relations were strained again this week when a senior US military spokesman in Baghdad accused Iranian agents of helping to plot a brazen raid that killed five US soldiers in the southern Iraqi city of Kerbala in January.
Iraq has been pressing both countries to hold a second round of talks in Baghdad to follow up a landmark meeting in May where senior envoys from the two sides discussed the violence in Iraq. "We hope this humanitarian gesture will help to ease tensions and facilitate further dialogue between the two countries," Zebari said.
"This is the first such visit since they were detained. This is a positive development." US Ambassador Ryan Crocker and his Iranian counterpart in Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, met in Baghdad on May 28 to discuss security in Iraq in what was the most high-profile meeting of the two enemies in almost three decades. Both envoys described the talks as positive. Iraq has invited both sides to meet again, but no date has been set for another meeting.
There was no immediate reaction from the US embassy in Baghdad to the consular visit. Washington accuses Iran of fomenting violence in Iraq by supplying militants with weapons and training to harm US troops. Tehran blames the US-led invasion in 2003 for sparking bloodshed that threatens to tear the country apart.
The US military said this week there had been no sign of action by Tehran since the first round of talks to stem alleged Iranian intervention in Iraq. The five detained Iranians have previously been visited by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Iran is holding three US-Iranian citizens on security-related charges.