Tehran announced on Monday that it would not hold a fourth round of security talks with the United States until its forces end the current crackdown on the Madhi Army militia loyal to Shia cleric Muqada al-Sadr.

“We believe the talks will not be held given the current situation (in Iraq),” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman  Mohammad Ali Hosseini said. He said talks on “security and peace” are contradicted by “extensive (US) bombing of the Iraqi nation.”

Several hundred Shias, the majority civilians, have been killed during the US-Iraqi campaign against the Sadrists which began in Basra and shifted to the Sadr City district of Baghdad, an area densely populated with 2.5 million people.

Hosseini observed, “Tehran has always said that it supports the Iraqi government and legal action against illegal armed groups who commit crimes there.”

Hosseini was responding to an announcement made by Iraqi spokesman Ali Dabbagh that US and Iraqi forces, which have been fighting Sadr’s militia in both Baghdad and the south since March 25, would not halt its campaign even if Iran pulled out of talks.