BAGHDAD - A conference to reconcile IraqÂ’s warring political groups began to unravel even before it got under way on Tuesday, with the main Sunni Muslim Arab bloc pulling out and protesting it had not been properly invited. The boycott by the Sunni Arab Accordance Front, a Shia bloc and smaller groups underlined that while Iraq is no longer on the verge of a sectarian civil war, there are still deep divisions between Shias and Sunnis, IraqÂ’s main Muslim sects.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki gave an upbeat assessment despite Tuesday’s setbacks, saying the nation was now healed after sectarian violence that threatened civil war. “Peace has been achieved between Sunni and Shia ... the crisis when people were being killed because of their religious identity is over,” Maliki told the conference.
On Tuesday, Front spokesman Salim al-Jubouri complained that the bloc had not been properly invited to the reconciliation conference at a convention centre in Baghdad’s heavily fortified ”Green Zone”, which houses the government and the US embassy.
He also said the Front decided not to attend because resolutions from other past conferences had not been acted upon. “How can we now arrange new proposals?” Jubouri said. |