Holding talks may be difficult, as a report released today (I think, maybe yesterday) indicated that out of thousands of personnel at the main "embassy" in Iraq, SIX of them spoke arabic fluently. Since Iraqs population is roughly 26 million, I think it's safe to say that them six folks are too busy to do any negotiatin...
And JLAP- I'm no expert, but if it helps to clarify the situation, there is a decent sized Jewish population in Iran (and despite that totally fraudulent "report" a few months ago, they do NOT have to wear identifying symbols or anything- tho the Arab Palestinians must have special license plates in Israel) and from what I've read, the problem isn't with people of the Jewish faith, but rather with the state of Israel itself- f'rinstance, when Irans prez was quoted with "DEATH TO ISRAEL", that was NOT what he said, the direct quote was a more nuanced "the page of history of Israel is soon to turn" or some jive like that- the western media blew it all out of proportion, as at the time the US government was real busily laying the groundwork for some kind of attack on Iran.
With the current butt-whipping the insurgents in Iraq are laying on the US military, that option was taken off the table. Irans prez may be nutty and believe some ridiculous things, but making a public statement that Iran was somehow gonna "wipe it off the map" would be plain stupid, as Israel already has undeclared nukes and could use such a statement to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike, which would be pretty bad for a whole bunch of folks
The US can play tough guy for only so long, having ANY kind of talks with Iran would be a good first step, as Iran is most definitely part of the eventual solution to the mess made of Iraq- I mean, they're right next door, and it doesn't look like the US will be able to hold them off for too long, at this stage, it'd be better to actually make a coalition of regional powers to keep the mess contained- as much as it would be nice to continue to expect any measure of victory, it's over and no amount of bullets and bombs is gonna fix this, so it's either words and diplomacy or else
And for the "Iran is untrustworthy" crowd- the US and Britain are likely not paragons of truth from the other side of the mirror, so both sides will just have to lump it