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Iraq Sunni leader urges Ramadan ceasefire, US talks
BAGHDAD - A prominent leader from Iraq's
Sunni Arab minority called on Friday for the
United States and Iraqi insurgents to cease fire in
the holy month of Ramadan as a prelude to
direct talks between Americans and the guerrillas.
Saleh al-Mutlak, a secular nationalist who was involved in negotiating a draft constitution,
said a coalition of Sunni political groups close to insurgents was ready to promote such a
dialogue to end the bloodshed that has ravaged Iraq since 2003.
"I call on the U.S. forces and the resistance to cease fire at once out of respect for
Ramadan," Mutlak said, adding that he was also urging the U.S. military to free thousands
of mainly Sunni detainees held on suspicion of guerrilla activity.
"The fighting should stop," Mutlak, who represents the National Dialogue movement, told
Reuters. "We have fought for two-and-a-half years and the problem is it doesn't work."
Though such talk may be welcomed by beleaguered U.S. troops, Washington has in the
past insisted it will not negotiate with the rebels and insists that the once dominant Sunni
minority cannot thwart majority rule by threats of violence.
Nor, Mutlak conceded, would any ceasefire involve foreign al Qaeda fighters who he said
were intent on a Sunni Islamic state.
Within a week or so, several groups would meet to formalise the proposal, he said,
declining to name them; Sunni politics since the fall of Saddam Hussein have been marked
by a fluid mix of secular and clerical groups, support for which, as they mostly boycotted
the last election, is hard to gauge.
"Our political programme is close to the resistance," Mutlak said. "The only difference is we
don't carry guns ... So if the Americans can reach an agreement with the Iraqi National
Dialogue, that will be close to the resistance demands."
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The ceasefire call came a week before a referendum on the constitution, which Mutlak and
many other Sunni leaders say may lead to the break-up of Iraq into warring regions and civil
war between them, the majority Shi'ites and ethnic Kurds.
A meeting on Saturday among Sunni leaders would assess whether to call on people to
boycott the ballot or to go to the polls and vote "No" in an effort to veto the constitution by
securing a big vote against it in three of Iraq's 18 provinces.
Sunni groups wanted a united front, he said, and might urge a boycott if they feared the
vote would be rigged against them.
Mutlak conceded that U.S. officials have been sceptical of similar proposals he and others
have made in the past but noted that Washington had acknowledged previous attempts to
open dialogue with people linked to the insurgents.
"We must find a political solution," he said. A ceasefire during Ramadan, which began this
week, "should be a start for direct negotiations between the two sides".
"Everybody is getting tired in Iraq," Mutlak said.