Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday stated that Tehran's policy of not negotiating with Washington was unchanged though there will be talks with the United States over Iraq.
The talks would not mean a breakthrough between the two foes as Iran would merely use the talks with U.S. diplomats to remind Washington of its "occupiers' duty" in the conflict-torn Iraq, state-run television quoted Khamenei as saying.
"The Iranian foreign ministry, at the request of Iraq, decided to participate in face-to-face talks with the United States and remind them of their duties and responsibilities over the security of Iraq," said the Iranian leader.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said on Sunday that Tehran has agreed to hold talks with the United States on Iraq.
"Following consultations between Iranian and Iraqi officials, Tehran has agreed to hold negotiations with Washington," Hosseini was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying at his weekly press conference.
The talks are aimed to "relieve pains and suffering of the Iraqi people, support and strengthen the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and stabilize security and peace in that country," Hosseini said.
The latest Iranian move comes just over a week after Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice exchanged brief greetings by saying hello to each other during a conference on Iraq's security in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Iran and the United States also held expert-level talks on the sideline of the international meeting on Iraq's security.
Source: Xinhua
The Supreme Leader of Iran, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has approved talks with the United States to deal with the security situation in Iraq but has said the discussions won't involve other outstanding issues between the two countries such as Iran's nuclear program.

Khamenei, as the supreme leader of Iran, has the final say in all state issues under Iran's Rule of the Islamic Jurisprudence.  Moreover, he is the highest-ranking Islamic cleric in Iran and also has a considerable following in Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, and other parts of the Islamic world.

Khamenei make his remarks in a speech in Mashhad where he said, "Iran's policy of not negotiating and having relations with America remains the same until the policies of this arrogant government change."

The United States and Iran have broken diplomatic relations since the Iran hostage crisis in 1980.  Tehran has in the past called the United States the "Great Satan" and the enemy of Islam.  Khamenei believes that rejecting a thorough discussion of all the disagreements between the United States and Iran is a "firm, logical and defendable policy."  The Leader of Islamic Revolution said,

These most recent remarks by Khamenei come after the brief exchange of greetings by Condoleezza Rice and Manouchehr Mottaki at the Sharm el-Sheikh conference in Egypt without a substantive discussion of the security situation of Iraq.

In 2005, Khamenei declared that the United States was responsible for terrorism in Iraq and said, "The presence of aliens in Iraq is harmful and destructive to the Iraqi people."  He also exhorted the American forces to withdraw.