TEHRAN, May 21 (UPI) -- Multilateral nuclear negotiations scheduled Wednesday in Baghdad may give Tehran a chance to express concerns about its neighbors, a lawmaker said.
Baghdad hosts talks Wednesday between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- along with Germany.
Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, an Iranian lawmaker, told Iran's semiofficial Fars News Agency that Tehran chose Baghdad in order to send a message that nuclear issues weren't the only matters on the negotiating table.
"The choice meant that it is seeking to have a say in a series of regional issues, including what happened in Iraq," he said.
Discussing the U.S.-led intervention, he said, was an essential issue because many of the Western interests in Iraq where in opposition to Iran's.
Iranian delegates met last week in Vienna with members of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the first such direct negotiations in three months.
Tehran is suspected of pursuing technology needed to manufacture a nuclear weapon. The Iranian government maintains its nuclear program is peaceful, however.
