Associated Press
CAIRO: Representatives of Iraq s ethnic and sectarian groups started discussions Tuesday on ways for reconciliation and ending escalating sectarian violence that threatens the breakup of the war-battered country.
Some 30 delegates representing Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds and other smaller minorities are participating in the discussions sponsored by the Cairo-based Arab League.
Insurgents are not represented at the talks which are aimed at preparing for a national reconciliation conference in Baghdad next month.
The discussions in Cairo open as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki meets with President George W. Bush at the White House later Tuesday. The two leaders were expected to discuss plans to bring more U.S. troops to Baghdad following an apparent failure of a six-week old plan to beef up security in the Iraqi capital.
Arab League Undersecretary-General Ahmed Ben Heli said the three-day discussions are designed to work out an agenda for the August meeting which, he said, should include former loyalists to ex-president Saddam Hussein.
Now is the time to achieve national reconciliation in Iraq, he told The Associated Press.
But Ben Heli made it clear that ending violence was a task for Iraq. This is a duty for Iraqis to find out ways for ending this dilemma, he said.
Some representatives were hopeful Tuesday.
We hope to come out with some results this time, God willing, said Jalal Al-Saghir, a Shiite representative. It is difficult but let us be hopeful, said Salman Al-Jumaili, a delegate representing the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party.
But privately many delegates expressed skepticism that the discussions will bring their groups any closer while some complained of lack of preparations by the pan-Arab organization.
[The Arab League] want it as a showcase for propaganda purposes, [but] they have nothing concrete, said one delegate on condition of anonymity, because of the sensitivity of the issue.
On Saturday an Iraqi government committee formed to reconcile the country s sectarian and political groups met in Baghdad, but differences emerged immediately between top Shiite and Sunni officials over amnesty for insurgents.
The committee was created after Al-Maliki released his national reconciliation plan shortly after taking office in May. The prime minister s 24-point plan includes an amnesty program for insurgents not involved in killing Iraqis or multinational forces.
After the meeting of the Supreme National Committee for Reconciliation and National Dialogue, Al-Maliki, a Shiite, said that despite his amnesty proposal, all those whose hands were tainted with blood should be brought to justice.
Most of the insurgents who have been fighting U.S. forces are Sunnis. The United States and the Iraqi government have sought to reach out to selected insurgent groups in hopes of convincing them to lay down their arms.
Ben Heli told AP earlier this month that the League will invite representatives of the insurgents to the conference in Baghdad next month.
Participants at a similar meeting held in Cairo in November failed to achieve consensus on basic issues such as a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and how to deal with the insurgency fighters.
The withdrawal is the focal point of a set of demands from the groups, which operate north of Baghdad in the heavily Sunni Arab provinces of Salahuddin and Diyala. Although much of the fighting has been to the west, those provinces are increasingly violent and attacks have crippled oil and commercial routes.
