Iraqi politicians began a three-day reconciliation conference on the political future of their country in Cairo on Saturday, airing immediately some of the disputes which have dragged Iraq close to civil war. While Shi'ite Muslim politicians condemned the insurgency, led mainly by Sunni Muslims, a leading Sunni politician said resistance was a legitimate response to U.S. occupation.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said religious extremists who advocate violence and associates of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had no place in the political process. But Harith al-Dhari of the Muslim Clerics' Association told the conference at the Arab League that the government was excluding people from jobs on ethnic and sectarian grounds. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said national reconciliation was the key to a successful political process in Iraq and to a gradual end to the presence of foreign forces. "The password for building the new Iraq .. is ensuring that all the sons of Iraq take part, without exception or marginalisation," he added. But Talabani said: "Our national unity ... does not include under any circumstance the murderers and criminals among the followers of the old regime, who left us mass graves, or among the takfiris (religious extremists)."
The Arab League arranged the conference out of alarm that Iraq, once a pillar of the Arab community, is descending into chaos and towards sectarian conflict.
WHO'S TO BLAME?
Some of the Arab states, including Egypt, are wary of growing Iranian influence in Iraq and want to redress what they see as an imbalance of power between Sunni and Shi'ites, and Arabs and non-Arab Kurds, diplomats say. They want U.S. forces to leave eventually but not at the expense of Iraq breaking up or falling under Iranian control.
Talabani and Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari emphasised the misdeeds of their Iraqi opponents in the insurgency, while al-Dhari said the U.S. and British occupation was the problem. "Armed resistance arose as a reaction to occupation. It is legitimate and is not an innovation. The popular support which the insurgents enjoy in many parts of the country exceeds that they enjoyed a year ago," al-Dhari said. He called for a firm timetable for U.S. and British withdrawal and dismissed the government's arguments for allowing them to stay while Iraqi forces build up their strength. He also accused the Iraqi government's forces of adopting the same techniques as U.S. forces -- detaining innocent people without charge and torturing them in secret locations.
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=6251332&cKey=1132405519000
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