Iran has postponed a fourth round of talks with the United States in Baghdad on improving security in Iraq, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said today.
Mr Zebari - who announced this week that talks would take place within days - said they were to have been held tomorrow but were put off at the last minute. He called the Iranian postponement "unfortunate".
"Yesterday we were informed that the Iranians want to postpone this for some time, for some unknown reason," Mr Zebari said. "This is the fourth time that we agreed on a date, and they don't show up."
The US-Iranian security talks are one of the few forums in which officials from the two countries have direct contact. Diplomatic ties between Washington and Iran have been frozen for almost three decades.
US and Iranian officials met three times last year to seek common ground on stabilising Iraq in talks arranged by the Baghdad government.