Monday, December 11, 2006
Al Rubaie - anyone except Al-Qaida accepted for national reconciliation
Politics, Security
Iraq's national security adviser Muwaffaq Al Rubaie yesterday said that there would be no red lines in the reconciliation process launched by the Iraqi government. "The central theme of the Iraqi government is national reconciliation. We will accept any organisation or individual as long as they are not Al Qaida. We will talk to former regime figures as well as religious leaders and others, and everything could be on the table," Al Rubaie said in Manama. "We will negotiate all their demands but right now we cannot disclose whom we are talking to," Al Rubaie told the Manama Conference 2006.
"At the national level, we have already had three important conferences with political religious leaders. We will also have an important conference this month with political leaders who include people who refused earlier developments," he said. At the regional level, there is a need to have a security pact against terrorism. "At the international level, we should not make this a US project, it should be an international community project," Al Rubaie said.
He said the nature of the conflict in Iraq was in fact a competition between groups competing for political power and financial gains. "It is ... a fight between moderates and extremists," he said, adding that violence was "very localised, mainly in two areas". "If we do not help Iraq control the sectarian violence, it will land on the doorsteps of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, other GCC countries and even further up in Pakistan and India," he said.
"At the national level, we have already had three important conferences with political religious leaders. We will also have an important conference this month with political leaders who include people who refused earlier developments," he said. At the regional level, there is a need to have a security pact against terrorism. "At the international level, we should not make this a US project, it should be an international community project," Al Rubaie said.
He said the nature of the conflict in Iraq was in fact a competition between groups competing for political power and financial gains. "It is ... a fight between moderates and extremists," he said, adding that violence was "very localised, mainly in two areas". "If we do not help Iraq control the sectarian violence, it will land on the doorsteps of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, other GCC countries and even further up in Pakistan and India," he said.
