Iraqi Shiite opposition conference in Tehran is expected to fail
Iraq-Iran, Politics, 3/5/2003

Member of the political bureau of the Islamic Call party, Jawad al-Malki, has expected that the "unifying of ranks" conference which is organized by the "preliminary committee" of the Shiite Iraqi opposition parties in Tehran will not succeed.

He justified such a failure to several factors, mainly fears of provoking sectarianism among the Sunni and the difficulty to maintain links among its "affiliations, which the US represents one of its sides, while Iran represents the other."

In a press statement, al-Maliki said that persons invited to the conference are Shiite Iraqi figures representing the two moderate and secular trends with the aim of maintaining an agreement among themselves including among other things making assurances to the Sunni in Iraq that "we do not have the intention to get dragged to a sectarian conflict" and that the "Shiite do not hold the Sunni responsible for what happened in Iraq, rather to the political regime which takes the Sunni sect as a pretext for making blocks and damaging the Shiite."

On the other hand, Kurdish officials and eye witnesses said that five persons were killed yesterday in clashes between fighters belong to Ansar al-Islam organization and others from the Kurdistani National Federation party led by Jalal al-Talibani near al-Suleimaneyah city to the north of Iraq.

A Kurdish official said that all persons killed were fighters of the Islamist organization which is suspected to be linked to al-Qaida networking.

Previous Stories:
  Sudden Iranian- Iraqi talks in Tehran   (2/10/2003)
  Iranian helping measures for Iraqi opposition forces to cross into Irbil   (1/29/2003)
  Iraqi opposition postpones meeting again; Iraqi army fortifies Karkouk; successful meeting betewen al-Hakim, al-Jalabi   (1/27/2003)

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