Contact for integrating gunmen in the political process

The Iraqi minister of the Interior Bayan Jaber Soulagh changed his mind on carrying a large military operation against gunmen positions in west Baghdad areas, at the request of the secretary general of the Arab league AL Amr Moussa.

For his part, the Iraqi President Jalal al-Talibani stressed that contacts between him and Islamic and Baathist armed groups are underway to discuss dropping their guns and integrating them in the political process.

This coincided with the announcement made by the Iraqi national security advisor Muwafaq al-Rubei that number of the American soldiers in Iraq which number 150,000 will be reduced to 100,000 by the beginning of 2007, expecting that some 30,000 American soldiers will be withdrawn from Iraq during the first half of 2006 and then to be followed by 30,000 by the end of the same year.

This came at a time when the chairman of the Higher Council Of The Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, criticized the Americans accusing them of obstructing the work of the Iraqi security forces, and his rejection to talk about the existence of resistance in Iraq.

On the electoral field, the election commission said that the Iraqis abroad will take part in the voting for the legislative elections in mid December in 15 countries, two days before its set date, adding that the countries concerned are Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Canada, Austria, Australia, Germany, Turkey, the USA, Sweden, Denmark, Britain, Holland, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.