Let's talk, says Talabani

2005-11-21 13:49

Cairo - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani extended a hand on Sunday to insurgents during reconciliation talks between the war-torn country's factions, even as violence continued to rage at home.

"If those who call themselves the Iraqi resistance want to contact me, I will welcome them," said Talabani, a Kurd, on the second day of the Arab League-sponsored meetings in Cairo.

During the opening session on Saturday, Talabani had excluded jihadists and criminals from the entourage of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein from talks.

"To those who took up arms to end the occupation, we say that the solution will not come through weapons but through political dialogue and democratic means," he said on Sunday.

Talabani made a distinction between those he described as "terrorists", Saddamists and people who fight to oust occupation forces.

It was not clear whether his comments on Sunday amounted to an invitation to members of the former Baathist regime, but his comments signalled a more conciliatory tone after the talks' stormy start.

Sword and blood

But the Iraq operation of al-Qaeda, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, rejected the call for dialogue by Talabani, saying "the sword and blood" were the only ways forward.

"There will only be between us the dialogue of the sword and of blood that they will pay as the price for what they have done with their own hands," the group said in a statement whose authenticity could not be verified.

It said that the goal of the conference was to "push Sunni Muslims into accepting their dirty political game and to evade the project of jihad (holy struggle)".

Arab League spokesman Alaa Rushdi said the reconciliation conference proper would be held during the last week of February 2006, "preferably in Baghdad".

Committees formed in Cairo were drafting a document setting the agenda of the conference and outlining the participation conditions.

Mohsen Abdel Hamid, the secretary general of Iraq's main Sunni political party, the Islamic Party, acknowledged progress had been made.

"We were able to reach closer positions on important issues such as a timetable for a withdrawal (of foreign troops), national unity and the distinction between terrorism and resistance," he said.

- SAPA