EL PASO (Texas): US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the Iraqi government’s decision to send a delegation to Iran was an important step in pressuring Tehran to stop arming Shia militias.

He said the visit by the Iraqi delegation was aimed at “in essence forcing them to make a choice: do they want to work with the government of Iraq or are they going to subvert the government of Iraq.

“For the prime minister of Iraq to send a delegation to Iran presumably to confront the Iranians with that kind of a choice, I think is a healthy development,” Gates told reporters during a visit to Fort Bliss, a US Army base.

A senior US defence official said the Iraqis were expected to confront the Iranians with evidence of Quds Force arming and training so-called “special groups.” Gates said it would be difficult to tell whether the Iraqi delegation has an impact. “I don’t know how you evaluate the success of a mission like that except over time looking back to see if the supply of weapons and training and so on has diminished,” he said.—AFP