By Claudia Parsons
Reuters, 11 November 2005.
BAGHDAD, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Iraq will not allow a national reconciliation conference promoted by the Arab League to be "a platform for terrorism" or for former top officials of Saddam Hussein's regime, Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said on Friday.
The Arab League, making a rare foray into Iraqi politics, hopes the meeting can help heal sectarian rifts in Iraq before Dec. 15 elections. But organisers have already had to postpone the meeting while they work on the controversial guest list.
A preparatory meeting has now been set for Nov. 19 in Cairo.
Whether to allow former members of Saddam's now disbanded Baath party to attend has become a political hot potato.
Many in the Arab world who have some sympathy for the revolt against U.S. forces argue that it is essential to include even figures with links to Sunni insurgents to assuage their minority community's alienation and draw them into the political process.
Others, particularly Islamists among the long-oppressed Shi'ite majority now in government, have been adamant they will not sit down with Saddam's former senior officials.
Jaafari said at a joint news conference with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the reconciliation talks were open to "all patriotic Iraqis who believe in the political process".
But asked if Baathists would be welcome, he said: "We will not accept that this conference become a platform for terrorism and for high-level Baathist officials of the former regime."
Sunni Arab sources who claim to speak for some insurgent groups say some are willing to give the political process a chance -- an attitude they say accounts for the relative lull in violence during a constitutional referendum in October.
One such source said Saddam's former foreign minister Naji Sabri could be an acceptable figure to attend the conference as a link to Baathist groups. Sources close to Sabri earlier denied he was involved in any discussions on the matter.
Arab League officials visited Iraq this week to meet likely participants in the conference, originally set for Nov. 15.
Sunni Arabs, who form about a fifth of the population, are expected to vote in strength for the first time in the mid-December parliamentary elections. Most of them boycotted January elections for a transitional assembly.
Favoured by Saddam, the Sunnis say the U.S.-backed Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government has ignored their interests.
Insurgents in Iraq come in many forms. They include Islamist groups such as al Qaeda in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi; Arab nationalists; Baathist supporters of Saddam; and tribal and local groups, Shi'ite as well as Sunni.
Rice refused to be drawn on who should attend the reconciliation conference: "Any people coming out of a period of tyranny as the Iraqi people have, and now out of a period of violence, have to find a balance between inclusion, reconciliation and justice," she said.
Keeping up a war of words with neighbouring Syria, Jaafari said Damascus was not doing enough to stop foreign militants crossing its territory into Iraq and accused it of hosting "terrorist training camps".
"Good relations with Syria are not possible as long as there are serious violations threatening Iraq's security," he said.
Iraq's efforts to improve relations with Arab neighbours, encouraged by Washington, have stumbled partly on sectarian issues, with the predominantly Sunni Arab world suspicious of Iraq's new leaders' links to fellow Shi'ites in non-Arab Iran.
(Additional reporting by Omar al-Ibadi)
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Citation: Claudia Parsons. "Top Baathists not welcome at Cairo talks - Iraqi PM." Reuters, 11 November 2005.
Original URL: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L11282136.htm
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