Iran receives feelers to play mediator

Iraqi political blocs have held talks with Iran over a stand-off sparked by a warrant for the arrest of the country's vice-president, officials said yesterday. Charges that Vice President Tarek Al Hashemi ran a death squad have plunged Iraq into political crisis, and representatives of multiple parties have spoken to top officials in Tehran, according to senior political sources in Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish region. "Iraqi parties are contacting Iran to mediate over the [Al] Hashemi issue," an official close to Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Three Kurdish political sources belonging to parties including the ruling Kurdistania alliance, meanwhile, said a senior Iranian delegation met with Kurdish regional president Masoud Barzani and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, in recent days to discuss the Al Hashemi arrest warrant. They said the delegation pushed for a meeting of senior political leaders, but Al Maliki refused to attend any meeting held in Arbil, and Barzani declined to join talks in Baghdad.