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Iraq Sunni leader urges Ramadan ceasefire, US talks

Posted on: Friday, 7 October 2005, 11:13 CDT

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."

REFERENDUM

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)

Source: REUTERS

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