Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Sunni leader supports proposed U.N. peace conference
Politics, U.N., Security
Follwoing the rejection by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) leader Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's initiative to hold an international conference on Iraq in an attempt to end the sectarian violence, Salih al-Mutlaq, the Sunni leader of the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, announced his support on December 4 for an international conference on Iraq as proposed by UN Secretary-General Annan, the Jordan-based "Al-Arab al-Yawm" reported the same day. Speaking at a news conference in Amman, al-Mutlaq said that the invitation to convene the conference "came late, but it is better than never."
He rejected SCIRI leader al-Hakim's objections to an international conference, accusing the Shi'ite leader of colluding with Iran. "What does Iran and al-Hakim want in expressing this objection? Has not the number of victims satisfied them yet?" al-Mutlaq said. Meanwhile, Muslim Scholars Association leader Harith al-Dari on December 4 urged Arab states and the international community to work seriously toward saving Iraq from disaster, Al-Arabiyah satellite television reported the same day. Furthermore, he accused the Iraqi government of fomenting the violence in Iraq. "It has become known to people everywhere that the political process brought to Iraq by the occupation, starting with the Governing Council and ending with the present government, is only a process for devastating, destroying, and dividing Iraq and its people," al-Dari said.
