Moussa says Sistani backs AL reconciliation efforts for Iraq

Visiting Arab League (AL) Secretary General Amr Moussa said on Saturday that he has sought Iraqi most revered spiritual Shiite leader Ayatollah Ali al- Sistani's support for the pan-Arab body's efforts for Iraqi reconciliation.

After a meeting at Sistani's house in the holy city of Najaf, 160 km south of Baghdad, Moussa told reporters that he has won Sistani's support for holding a Iraqi national reconciliation conference.

"We have the blessing and support of Ayatollah Sistani, which made us glad," Moussa said.

Meanwhile, the senior Shiite cleric gave his views on the basics on which the conference should be held, stressing that any foreign intervention in Iraq's domestic affairs should not take place and that the Iraqis should decide their own fate by themselves.

Moussa arrived in Baghdad on Thursday on a three-day visit for talks with government officials and leaders of different ethnic groups on a national reconciliation dialogue.

On Friday, Moussa met leaders of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni Arab religious group, who set conditions for the reconciliation conference.

The influential group in Iraq said in a statement that before dialogue could begin, a timetable for withdrawal of the occupation forces must be set.

Another condition was to "consider resistance as a legitimate right and terrorism, in all its forms, as an unacceptable crime," the statement added.

The association also wants to "rebuild the Iraqi army by getting rid of undesirable elements," demanding "the dissolution of militias that preach political sectarianism," the statement said, referring to the Shiite militias of the Badr Organization and Mehdi Army.

Moussa also met with Sunni Arabs at Um al-Qura mosque in western Baghdad after Friday's prayer.

"The conditions set for the success of the proposed reconciliation conference in Iraq constitute proposals that can be negotiated," the AL chief said after the meeting.

On Thursday, Iraq's Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said that he welcome the proposed national dialogue conference as long as it did not include "terrorists who have shed blood and high-ranking Baathists."

The Iraq national reconciliation conference, which Moussa is rallying support in Iraq during his first visit to this war-torn country since the US-led invasion in March, 2003, is to be held in the 22-member pan-Arab body's headquarters in Cairo, Egypt later this year.

Source: Xinhua