Replies

Iraq discusses reconciliation with exiles in Jordan Monday October 30, 06:34 PM By Kamal Taha

AMMAN (AFP) - An Iraqi government delegation held talks with Iraqi exiles in Jordan amid efforts to involve them in a reconciliation conference in November in violence-battered Iraq.

But at the end of two days of often heated discussions, many exiles insisted that any reconciliation talks must include Iraqi insurgents battling the US-led occupation of their country.

"We came to invite them to attend a conference of political forces to be held in the first half of November in Baghdad,

and hear their views on Iraqi reconciliation," delegation chief Faleh al-Fayad told reporters.

"The conference will be open to everyone regardless of their political positions," Fayad said.

Iraq's ambassador to Jordan, Saad Jassem al-Hayani, said the talks covered many thorny issues such as "the dissolution of the (former) Iraqi army, the de-Baathification process and the issue of prisoners.

"Those who will attend the conference will be totally free to express their views about anything that can contribute to rebuilding Iraq and restoring its stability," he said.

"We will provide protection to all the participants from the moment they set foot at the airport until the end of the conference and their return" to their host countries, Hayani said.

Earlier this month Iraq's embattled government postponed plans to hold the conference, initially due to take place October 21, amid a spate of deadly violence between rival Sunni and Shiite factions.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki hopes that a programme of national reconciliation designed to bring embittered national groups into a peace process and isolate extremist militants from popular support will halt Iraq's slide towards all-out civil war.

The conference of political leaders is seen as part of preparations for a long-awaited and oft-postponed National Reconciliation Conference, which the Arab League has been trying to convene.

But in Amman, the delegation, which heads next to Syria, Egypt and Arab Gulf countries, apparently failed to get clear support from the exiles, who included former Iraqi army officers, ex-members of the ousted Baath Party, intellectuals and businessmen.

"The only solution is through dialogue. No one can speak on behalf Iraq except for the noble resistance. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar," said Fawzi Farman al-Jburi, a Sunni Iraqi who said he has contacts with insurgents.

Muayed al-Windawi, an international consultant, said the exiles told the delegation "the solution to Iraq's woes can only be found inside the country".

"Outside Iraq we face no problems. Outside Iraq, all of us, Sunnis, Shiites, Arabs and Kurds, live as brothers," said Windawi.

Nseir al-Aani, a Sunni MP from the National Accord bloc, said the meetings aimed at "saving Iraq and steering the boat to a safe port".

"Everyone agrees that the Iraqis have no problems amongst themselves but they are all asking who is standing behind the killings and violence on the streets," Aani added.

Meanwhile Jordan's independent Al-Ghad newspaper reported Monday that US officials have held talks in Amman with representatives of Iraq's insurgency.

"The aim of this dialogue, if it succeeds, is to push forward the political process in Iraq," Al-Ghad said quoting unnamed Iraqi sources.

The US embassy in Amman said it could not confirm or deny the report.

But the Iraqi ambassador told AFP such contacts "have been taking place for a long time in Amman, in Baghdad and elsewhere," although the embassy was not involved them.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/30102006/323/iraq-discusses-reconciliation-exiles-jordan.html