Home » Archives » April 2006 » U-S ambassador warns of threat of sectarian war to entire Middle East
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04/08/2006:
"U-S ambassador warns of threat of sectarian war to entire Middle East"
BAGHDAD, Iraq The U-S ambassador to Iraq says a conflict that could affect the entire Middle East might emerge if efforts to build an Iraqi government don't succeed.Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad tells the BBC that the political contacts between Iraq's groups are improving, but the country faces the possibility of sectarian civil war if the government formation doesn't work.
He says that the role of armed militias is in part to blame for the intensifying "polarization along sectarian lines."
Khalilzad says the best way to prevent a conflict is to form a government that includes representatives of all groups -- an effort that has stalled because of opposition to Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
Khalilzad says the international community must do everything possible "to make this country work."
kristv.com
Apparently Mr. Khalilzad is not in the loop. The country he represents doesn't want the country to work.
Summit may be Iraq's last chance for peace
WASHINGTON -- As Iraq teeters on the brink of civil war and remains unable to form a government of national unity more than four months after the elections, Jordan said it would host a conference aimed at defusing the volatile situation across its eastern border.
The Iraqi Islamic Reconciliation Summit will be held in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on April 22. The intent of the 'summit' is to gather a large number of Iraq's top religious and tribal leaders representing Sunnis and Shiites, Arabs and Kurds, in an effort to seek an agreement based on common religious principles. The first hurdles the conference will tackle will be to find a way to end the violence that is claiming dozens of lives every day and to achieve a political solution that will put an end to Iraq's current strife.
The Iraqi Islamic Reconciliation Summit will be held under the patronage of King Abdullah II, and is expected to draw a large number of senior Iraqi religious and tribal leaders from all sects and walks of life. The conference organizers, Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought and the Arab League, say they hope the meeting "will provide a forum for Iraqi leaders to take a crucial step towards stemming the violence in Iraq."
