Iraq Sunni leader urges Ramadan ceasefire, US talks

By Omar al-Ibadi

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A prominent leader from Iraq’s Sunni
Arab minority called on Friday for the United States and Iraqi
insurgents to cease fire in the holy month of Ramadan as a
prelude to direct talks between Americans and the guerrillas.

Saleh al-Mutlak, a secular nationalist who was involved in
negotiating a draft constitution, said a coalition of Sunni
political groups close to insurgents was ready to promote such
a dialogue to end the bloodshed that has ravaged Iraq since
2003.

“I call on the U.S. forces and the resistance to cease fire
at once out of respect for Ramadan,” Mutlak said, adding that
he was also urging the U.S. military to free thousands of
mainly Sunni detainees held on suspicion of guerrilla activity.

“The fighting should stop,” Mutlak, who represents the
National Dialogue movement, told Reuters. “We have fought for
two-and-a-half years and the problem is it doesn’t work.”

Though such talk may be welcomed by beleaguered U.S.
troops, Washington has in the past insisted it will not
negotiate with the rebels and insists that the once dominant
Sunni minority cannot thwart majority rule by threats of
violence.

Nor, Mutlak conceded, would any ceasefire involve foreign
al Qaeda fighters who he said were intent on a Sunni Islamic
state.

Within a week or so, several groups would meet to formalize
the proposal, he said, declining to name them; Sunni politics
since the fall of Saddam Hussein have been marked by a fluid
mix of secular and clerical groups, support for which, as they
mostly boycotted the last election, is hard to gauge.

“Our political program is close to the resistance,” Mutlak
said. “The only difference is we don’t carry guns … So if the
Americans can reach an agreement with the Iraqi National
Dialogue, that will be close to the resistance demands.”

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The ceasefire call came a week before a referendum on the
constitution, which Mutlak and many other Sunni leaders say may
lead to the break-up of Iraq into warring regions and civil war
between them, the majority Shi’ites and ethnic Kurds.

A meeting on Saturday among Sunni leaders would assess
whether to call on people to boycott the ballot or to go to the
polls and vote “No” in an effort to veto the constitution by
securing a big vote against it in three of Iraq’s 18 provinces.

Sunni groups wanted a united front, he said, and might urge
a boycott if they feared the vote would be rigged against them.

Mutlak conceded that U.S. officials have been skeptical of
similar proposals he and others have made in the past but noted
that Washington had acknowledged previous attempts to open
dialogue with people linked to the insurgents.

“We must find a political solution,” he said. A ceasefire
during Ramadan, which began this week, “should be a start for
direct negotiations between the two sides.”

“Everybody is getting tired in Iraq,” Mutlak said.
(Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald)