Iraqi VP calls for talks with insurgents

[maddezmom]

Source: AFP

Iraqi VP calls for talks with insurgents by Bryan Pearson
1 hour, 39 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi called Wednesday for talks with the country's insurgent groups, as the Pentagon claimed Al-Qaeda is using children as fodder in their brutal war in Iraq.

Despite raging violence which killed 100 people in two days, Iraqis were celebrating the Kurdish Nowruz spring festival which fell a day after the nation marked the fourth anniversary of the US-led invasion.

Hashemi, a Sunni, said in an interview with the BBC that militants, Al-Qaeda excluded, were "just part of the Iraqi communities."

"I do believe there is no way but to talk to everybody," said Hashemi, who is due in Tokyo later Wednesday.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070321/wl_afp/iraq_070321103724

[Eugene]

1. Iraq 'talking to militant groups'

Source: BBC News

Last Updated: Wednesday, 21 March 2007, 19:00 GMT

Iraq 'talking to militant groups'

Talks are taking place between the Iraqi government and some insurgent
groups, a senior Iraqi official says.

Saad Yousif al-Muttalibi, of the Ministry of National Dialogue and Reconciliation,
said none of the groups were linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Mr Muttalibi said the talks might be getting close to a point where some of the
groups lay down their arms.

It comes after Iraq's vice-president called for talks with insurgents to try
to bring peace to Iraq.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6475407.stm

[Eugene]

2. Talks with insurgents underway in Iraq

Source: Associated Press

Talks with insurgents underway in Iraq

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer
21 minutes ago

BAGHDAD - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was headed to Baghdad
on Thursday for talks with Iraq's prime minister just as his government
disclosed that it has been indirectly talking to Sunni insurgent groups
over the past three months to persuade them to lay down their arms.

-snip-

Meanwhile, Saad Yousif al-Muttalibi of the Ministry of National Dialogue
and Reconciliation said talks with Sunni insurgent groups were initiated
at the request of the insurgents and have been taking place inside and
outside Iraq over the past three months.

He refused to identify the groups, but said they did not include al-Qaida
in Iraq or Saddam Hussein loyalists. Members of the former president's
outlawed Baath party took part, he added.

Speaking to The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday,
al-Muttalibi said the negotiations were deadlocked over the insurgent
groups' insistence that they would lay down their arms only when a
timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led coalition troops in Iraq is
announced.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070322/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq