The first direct, high-level contact in years among U.S., Iranian and Syrian representatives included "frank and sometimes jovial exchanges," Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, said Saturday. "The overall mood was businesslike, constructive," Khalilzad told reporters in a conference call after the one-day session in Baghdad. "Nobody was pounding the table."Khalilzad and another U.S. envoy talked to Iranian and Syrian diplomats several times Saturday during a larger meeting intended to draw international support for the task of reducing violence in Iraq. The contacts - especially between the United States and regional heavyweight Iran - overshadowed the original purpose of the meeting. The public talks with Iran were a rarity for the United States during more than a quarter century of enmity, and a possible prelude to a more cooperative relationship if not a friendly one.
