US invites Sunni leader for talks

Doha: The US administration in Iraq expressed willingness to start immediate dialogue with Sunnis regarded as opponents to the American occupation in Iraq, a Sunni leader told Gulf News.

Harith Al Dhari, head of Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq said he has agreed to meet Zalmay Khalilzad, the US Ambassador to Iraq, upon a request from the diplomat to discuss ways to end the violence in Iraq.

Al Dhari left Baghdad three months ago to take part in a Shiite-Sunni reconciliation meeting held in Makkah and to explain the Iraqi issue to leaders in a number of Arab and Islamic countries.

The prominent Sunni leader, who was on the 'wanted list' of the current Iraqi government for what it claimed was Al Dhari's role in supporting terrorism, did not disclose the timing and the location of the meeting. He said it might take place this week anywhere in the region including Iraq. He said he did not fear arrest in Iraq although the government issued an arrest warrant a few weeks ago.

New strategy

He said the meeting, which was the first of its kind since he was put on the wanted list of the government, will not negotiate any issue that gives the American presence in the country any kind of legitimacy.

Al Dhari pledged to tell the US envoy that the US forces should leave Iraq before discussing any kind of settlement there. "It seems they [the US administration] wanted to hear advice from different parties in Iraq before finalising their new strategy in the country. I will tell them again what I have told them at the beginning of their occupation of Iraq some four years ago. I will ask them to leave Iraq immediately and unconditionally," he said.

He refused to call the current violence in Iraq a sectarian war between Shiites and Sunnis and said there are no sectarian divisions in Iraqi society, but the violence the Iraqis are witnessing is a result of the American occupation to Iraq.

"Eighty-five per cent of people in Iraq representing different sectarian and ethnic backgrounds are willing to see an end to the American occupation to Iraq. People blame Americans for instigating sectarian divisions between Sunni and Shiite. It is a legitimate struggle against the occupation and will never stop before the liberation of Iraq," he said.

"The majority who reject the occupation include Shiite, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians and all other components of the nation," he said.

Practical solution

Al Dhari said a small group of Iraqis, who came with the occupiers to rule the country, are the ones who promote sectarian war and are requesting the US to stay in Iraq.

He said demanding an immediate withdrawal of the US forces from Iraq is the most practical solution to end the violence. "I guarantee that fighting will stop the moment the US forces leave Iraq. Those, who came with the occupiers and have asked them to stay, should leave the country along with the Americans or face a fair trial for treason," he said.

He said the trial of traitors is not another round of revenge, but a fair punishment for those who were behind the killing of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

Al Dhari said beefing up the foreign troops in Iraq is not the solution and if the US administration was sincerely seeking a way out, they should leave immediately.

"I guarantee that the fighting will stop the moment the US forces leave Iraq. Those who came with the occupiers and asked them to stay, should leave the country along with them or face a fair trial for treason."