Iraqi opposition group agrees to join national reconciliation conference

AMMAN, Jordan A delegation of Iraq lawmakers met with a newly formed group of Iraqi political activists in the Jordanian capital on Monday and agreed to hold a national reconciliation conference next month, a leader of the advocacy group said.

The conference will take place on Nov. 15 in Baghdad under the auspices of the Iraqi prime minister, said Hassan al-Bazzaz, the secretary general of the Patriotic and National Forces Movement opposition group.

The movement was formed by both Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and includes Iraqi politicians, former military officers, former leaders Saddam's Baath party, intellectuals and tribal chiefs representing most of Iraq's ethnic and religious factions.

Created in Amman in August, it is headed by prominent tribal leader Hamid al-Gaoud of insurgent infested Anbar province, and aims at helping maintain Iraq's unity and ending the bloodshed.

The group has said it intends to take part in the next Iraqi elections and join the parliament.

Its leader has denounced the U.S.-led occupation and called for the "liberation of Iraq." However, al-Gaoud also said in August the movement was willing to establish ties with the United States, Britain, Europe and Arab countries based on "mutual understanding and peaceful means."

The group held two-day talks that ended Monday at Iraq's embassy in Jordan with a government delegation, which was headed by lawmaker Saleh al-Fayadh, said al-Bazzaz, a professor of political sciences at Baghdad's university.

The reconciliation conference was initiated by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to discuss a 24-point plan to heal the nation's severe political wounds.

Al-Bazzaz said his group, called Heqooq _or "rights"_ in Arabic, supported the prime minister's initiative and sensed that the Iraqi government had "true intentions of reconciliation."

Read the rest at the International Herald Tribune

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