The photo shows a previous meeting on IraqÕs security between Iranian, US and Iraqi officials in Baghdad.

WASHINGTON,
Dec. 14--US and Iranian experts postponed a meeting to discuss Iraq’s security but the two sides will arrange a new meeting, the US State Department said Thursday.
“We were perfectly prepared to early next week have this meeting as scheduled. Apparently there was some scheduling conflict on the other side,“ State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters, AFP reported.
He confirmed he meant Iran when talking about “the other side“.
“And we’re going to look for another mutually convenient date to get together,“ McCormack said.
“I don’t know the specifics of who came to whom, but the bottom line came out that there were scheduling conflicts on the other side and they said, ’Can we look for another date?’ And our response is, ’Sure.’“
In Baghdad earlier, Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Labid Abbawi said, “The meeting has been postponed for technical reasons linked to the schedules of different participants. We are working to set a new date.“
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari had said on Monday that officials from Tehran, Washington and Baghdad would meet on December 18 to thrash out strategies aimed at quelling the violence in Iraq.
The meeting would be the fourth round of talks among the three parties.

TEHRAN, Dec. 14--A politician said the Reformist Coalition Headquarters aims to form a coalition in the next Majlis elections, which will be held on March 14, and strengthen the Islamic system.
Abdollah Nasseri-Taheri, the headquarters’ spokesman, also told reporters on Friday that victory of the headquarters, which began its activities four months ago, in the elections will help implement reforms, promote the effectiveness of Majlis and improve Iran’s status in the international community, IRNA reported.
“Strengthening convergence, increasing cooperation, preparing the ground for participation of competent candidates in the elections and cooperating with officials for holding healthy elections will be the reformists’ strategies in the next elections,“ he said.
He noted that Islamic Iran Participation Front, Executives of Construction Party, the Association of Combatant Clerics and Islamic Labor Party, Iran Solidarity Party, Youth Party, Workers’ House and some other parties are among members of the headquarters.
Nasseri-Taheri stressed that being religious and literate, having good fame, possessing experience in political, social, economic, cultural and scientific fields and considering national interests in the decision-making processes are the headquarters’ criteria for selecting its candidates.
“We support every legal party that accepts the reformists’ plans,“ he said.
Nasseri-Taheri said conditions should be prepared for the people to participate in the elections, adding that the Guardians Council and the national media can encourage people to participate in the elections.

TEHRAN, Dec. 14--Tehran’s interim Friday prayer leader, Ahmad Khatami, said Iran considers the NIE report neither as a political victory nor something unimportant.
“We consider the report of 16 US intelligence institutions neither as a huge political victory nor as something (of) minor (importance),“ said Khatami in an address to large groups of worshipers at the Tehran University campus, IRNA reported.
The Friday prayer leader said the report has some positive aspects.
“The report bears positive aspects: One is that it explicitly acknowledges that Iran does not have nuclear weapons. Moreover, it admits that since 2003 Iran’s nuclear energy has been peaceful.
“Another point, which is a source of honor for our system, is that they have reported that in 2007 Iran made a serious leap in the field of nuclear technology. The enemy’s acknowledgement constitutes a success.“
Referring to inaccuracies in the report, Khatami said it maintains that Iran sought nuclear weapons prior to 2003 which is a lie.
“They claim that Iran stopped seeking nuclear weapons due to the US pressure, which is another lie,“ he said.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Khatami said the assassination of a senior Lebanese commander General Francois El-Hajj was in line with the plots to escalate tension in that country.
“Undoubtedly, the Zionist regime is to be blamed for the act. The criminals do not wish to see Lebanon in peace,“ he said.
He then termed US Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ recent Manama visit to lure support of Arabs in opposing Iran as “a failure“.
“Gates had gone there to set up an Arab-Israeli camp against Iran but with God’s grace, the participants ridiculed him. We consider it as a political victory that our Arab neighbors have come to the belief that Iran is their powerful friend and they want to have peaceful coexistence with it. Iran, too, has shown that it has been their best friend after the triumph of the Islamic Revolution,“ he said.
The Friday prayer leader said neighbors should be vigilant and realize that certain countries’ claims, raised every now and then, that they own the three Iranian islands is a “US trap“.
“They are constantly wishing to keep the issue so as to fan the flames of conflict, which we hope neighbors will avoid,“ he said.
Khatami lashed out at the US in removing last week evidence regarding the interrogation and torture of Guantanamo inmates, which was acknowledged by the CIA chief.
“That’s a dark blot for the US. (US President George W.) Bush personally orders torture. They torture the inmates and film it, then remove all traces of the crime and claim they defend human rights. This is a serious fiasco for western democracy,“ he said.

TEHRAN, Dec. 14--Police forces killed 12 members of a terrorist group in clashes and captured 10 in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan on Thursday.
The group, which was responsible for terrorist operations over the past years, had entered the province with the aim of carrying out terrorist operations and assassinating provincial officials and bombing public places, IRNA reported.
Members of the terrorist group were based at two houses in the city of Iranshahr and had a considerable amount of weapons and explosives. During the operation, 12 terrorists were killed and 10 others possessing different types of weapons and 150 pounds of explosives have been captured.
Those arrested admitted that they had planned to carry out assassination attempts against provincial officials and plant bombs in public places in the province.
Iran has repeatedly accused the US of backing militants and ethnic opposition groups to destabilize the Iranian government.
Southeastern Iran, a region near Pakistan and Afghanistan, is long plagued by drug traffickers and a key crossing point for narcotics, often witnessing clashes between police and drug gangs.

Natural disasters' toll has decreased by 22 percent since the start of the year on March 21 compared with the corresponding period of the previous year.

ISFAHAN, Dec. 14--Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi said that since start of the year on March 21, natural disasters’ toll has decreased by 22 percent compared to the similar period the previous year.
Pour-Mohammadi told the first meeting of First Aid and Crisis Management During Natural Disasters on Friday that the decline comes at a time when such incidents have risen by 18 percent since the beginning of the year compared with the corresponding period of the previous year, IRNA reported.
He noted that Iran has gained remarkable achievements in reducing the natural disasters’ effects, as testified by international organizations and institutions.
“A budget of 40 billion rials has been allocated for the project to make residential buildings and shanty areas resistant against the disasters,“ he said.
Pour-Mohammadi said Iran is among the top 10 natural disaster-prone countries, and the government needs to promote its readiness against such incidents.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14--The wife of former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared during a trip to Iran nine months ago, said on Thursday she would leave for Tehran early next week to try to find her husband.
Christine Levinson said she had received a visa last week and would leave for Iran on Monday with her son and sister, Reuters reported.
“I am hoping we will be able to find Bob and bring him home. We have heard absolutely nothing since he went missing in March and I feel I have to go over there,“ Mrs. Levinson said by telephone from her home in Coral Springs, Florida.
The United States has no diplomatic ties with Iran and has sent requests for information about Levinson to Tehran via the Swiss government, which acts as a go-between. The Iranian government says it has no leads.
US officials have said they believe Levinson is in Iran but they have no credible information on his whereabouts.
Levinson retired from the FBI a decade ago and his wife said he had traveled to the Iranian resort island of Kish to investigate counterfeiting and smuggling of cigarettes for a client, likely a tobacco company.
Levinson called his wife on March 8 before boarding a plane from Dubai to Kish. He told her he had left most of his luggage at a Dubai hotel and would be back within 24 hours.
When he did not call two days later on March 10, his 59th birthday, Mrs. Levinson said she knew there was a problem.
She said the Swiss ambassador to Tehran and the US interests section were trying to set up meetings with Iranian government officials. She also plans to go to Kish Island to retrace her husband’s steps.