Talks between Iraq's Shiite and Sunni Muslim groups concluded on Monday, with the representatives from the two groups agreeing on a set of recommendations to start negotiations to reach national reconciliation.
The four-day talks, aimed at ending violence between Iraq's Shiite and Sunni Muslim groups, started in secret on Aug. 31 at an undisclosed location in Finland under the auspices of the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) headed by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari.
"Participants committed themselves to work towards a robust framework for a lasting settlement," said a statement issued by the Crisis Management Initiative on Monday night.
In the Helsinki Agreement released by the CMI, the participants agreed to consult further on a list of recommendations to start negotiations to reach national reconciliation, including resolving all political disputes through non-violence and democracy.
The recommendations also included prohibiting the use of arms for all armed groups during the process of negotiations, and forming an independent commission approved by all parties to supervise the process of disarmament of non-governmental armed groups in a verifiable manner.
The CMI did not reveal who took part in the closed-door talks nor the venue of the meeting, citing security concerns. It only described the talks as a seminar that will look at lessons learned from the South Africa and Northern Ireland peace processes and study how these processes could benefit Iraq.
According to Finnish media reports, the participants included Minister of State for National Dialogue Akram al-Hakim, who is a senior official of Iraq's Supreme Islamic Council, as well as representatives of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, Sunni politician Saleh al-Mutlaq and a senior figure from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shiite Dawa party.
The leader of the largest Sunni Arab political group, Adnan al- Dulaimi, and Humam Hammoudi, the Shiite chairman of the Iraqi parliament's foreign affairs committee, were reported to have attended the talks.
In addition, representatives involved in the peace processes in South Africa and Northern Ireland also took part in the seminar and spoke about their experience of conflict resolution.
The CMI was founded by Ahtisaari in 2000. In 2005, the group mediated a peace accord between the Indonesian government and rebels in the province of Aceh.
Source: Xinhua
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