Quote:
US makes contact with Iraqi insurgents
By Borzou Daragahi in Baghdad
June 10, 2005
The US embassy in Baghdad has held indirect talks with members of violent Iraqi insurgent groups, edging back from a long-standing position not to negotiate with "terrorists" or those who have American or Iraqi blood on their hands.
"People stop shooting at us, and we - and I think the Iraqi Government - are ready to engage," a US official said in Baghdad on Wednesday.
The US is hoping to persuade Iraq's insurgents to lay down their weapons and join the political process. But the insurgency is thought to be comprised of diffuse groups of fighters, and it was unclear how broad a section has been involved in the contacts with the US.
On Tuesday a former minister in Iraq's interim government said the leaders of two insurgent groups were prepared to discuss conditions for ending their campaign of attacks.
Aiham Alsammarae, who was electricity minister under the former prime minister Iyad Allawi, said the groups, which he identified as the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Mujahideen Army, were willing to enter negotiations with US and Iraqi officials.
Reports of meetings between figures associated with the insurgency and US officials began emerging earlier this year, but US authorities previously have declined to provide details.
US military commanders in war-torn swaths of Iraq have long sent olive branches and ultimatums to militants through tribal and religious leaders. A Pentagon official described those interactions as informal and insubstantial.
"There has been some dialogue with these guys, but no negotiations," the official said.
The talks confirmed by the official appeared to be more formal contacts between insurgents and American diplomats, mainly using Sunni Arab political and religious figures as intermediaries.
Abdul Salaam Kubaysi, a leader of the Muslim Scholars Association, an influential Sunni Arab group, said he knew of at least three instances where figures close to the insurgency had approached the US embassy about the prospects of cutting a deal, the latest about four days ago.
For months, Iraq's interim leaders have been in contact with representatives of insurgent groups, trying to bring them into the political process. But the new participation of the Americans in such talks might help convince the guerillas that the negotiations could have substantial results.
The discussions could indicate a new willingness on the part of the guerillas to lay down their weapons.
■ In a move certain to further inflame sectarian tensions with Sunni Arabs, Iraqi leaders said on Wednesday they strongly supported the existence of an Iranian-trained Shiite militia known as the Badr Organisation and praised the militia's role in trying to secure the country.
It was the first time the new Iraqi Government has publicly backed an armed group that was created along sectarian lines, and it was an implicit rejection of repeated requests by American officials that the Government disband all militias in the country.
Meanwhile Sunni Arab leaders on Wednesday demanded double the number of representatives on a parliamentary committee drafting the new constitution, threatening to boycott the process if the Shiite-dominated parliament did not meet their demand.
The Washington Post, The New York Times, Associated Press
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REF:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/US-...123959704.html
I was going to title this thread "Did someone say back-flip? Again?!", but thought better of it.
Personally, I see this change in the Administration's position of "splendid (and arrogant) isolationism" as a good thing.
Everyone
knows the US is unable to defeat the insurrgents. The British and Irish know that. The Israeli's know that. So it's best to negotiate with them.
Hopefully this will help start the reduction of the terrible carnage in Iraq. Of course there will always be the crazies to deal with, but it's nice to see acknowledgement of the fact that the US is not dealing with only "terrorists" over there. This despite the irrational heretofore contention that this was the case.
Mr Mephisto