Iraqi Government Negotiations with Sunni Guerrillas

'Iraqi Reconciliation Conference Postponed 'To Allow For More Time for Dialogue'

Report by Faysal Malkawi in Amman: "Contacts Between US Officials and Armed Factions... ...and the Postponement of the Reconciliation Conference. The Iraqi Government Meets Representatives of the Ba'th Party and the Armed Resistance in Amman. Calls for Reconsidering the Decision To Dissolve the Army and Canceling the Deba'thification."

Al-Ra'y (Internet Version-WWW)
Tuesday, October 31, 2006 T10:36:04Z

It was announced in Amman yesterday that the Iraqi national reconciliation conference, which was scheduled to be held on 4 November 2006, has been postponed until after the middle of the same month. Falih al-Fayyad, a member of the Higher Committee for Iraqi Reconciliation, told Al-Ra'y that the postponement came to allow for more time for dialogue and consultation with the Iraqi political spectrum inside and outside Iraq. The postponement announcement came following talks the Reconciliation Committee delegation, which is supported by the Nuri al-Maliki government, held at the Iraqi Embassy in Amman with around 40 Iraqi political and tribal figures, all of whom are members of the Sunni opposition. Al-Ra'y has learned from Iraqi sources attending the talks that the committee delegation might during its stay in Amman meet Iraqi figures and leaders of Iraqi political movements living in Syria before completing its mission by meeting Iraqi figures of various political persuasions living in the UAE.

The sources also said that Iraqi Vice-President Adil Abd-al-Mahdi and Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih will visit Amman soon to meet senior Jordanian officials and leaders of Iraqi political, academic, and tribal forces living in Amman. The aim of the visit is to give further momentum to the dialogue, which aims at involving everyone in the ongoing political process in Iraq, especially the Sunni Arabs. One of the most important results of the Amman meetings is that many personalities and forces, after the dialogue sessions, expressed willingness to attend the upcoming reconciliation conference. This was unlikely before these dialogue sessions.

According to the information Al-Ra'y received, yesterday's meeting witnessed an acerbic debate between a number of participants and the committee delegation. Some of the opposition representatives stressed that the problem of Iraq "comes from inside, specifically from officials in the Iraqi Government and Parliament." They criticized the dissolution of the Iraqi Army, the practices of the now-defunct Civil Administration under Bremer, and the process of Deba'thification. These issues, as they said, contributed to inflaming the security situation in Iraq and leading it to what it is now.

At the end of yesterday's meeting, Al-Fayyad said that the meetings aimed at "paving the way for the reconciliation conference and creating the appropriate climate for rendering it successful; the aim is not to make specific decisions now, but rather to discuss various issues in a frank and open manner without putting any restrictions on introducing any problems or issues to the agenda."

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