they know they are losing
It isn't losing or winning, the democratically elected Sunni leaders know the only ones who will win a civil war in Iraq are Iran and al-Qaeda so they are trying to make a list of conditions that would statisfy enough of the Sunni public that they would have the power to tell most Sunnis that it is not worth it to give up the fight. Otherwise the elected Sunni leaders could never get most of the domestic fighters to stop.