President rejects call for Iraq crisis conference
Iraq’s president rejected suggestions that an international conference be held to address the violence wracking his country, echoing sentiments expressed by other leading politicians.
“We are an independent and a sovereign nation and it is we who decide the fate of the nation,” President Jalal Talabani said after meeting US Congressman Christopher Shays.
Talabani, a Kurd, holds a largely ceremonial post, but his comments echoed those voiced by other politicians, including a leader from Iraq’s Shiite Muslim majority, which is the dominant force in the US-backed government.
Foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari questioned the aim of the international conference suggested last week by outgoing United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan. Zebari said it would be welcome only if it supported current efforts to solve Iraq’s security problems and assist the government.
“Is it to take the political process back to square one and review all that is done in the past three years? If this is the aim, then we reject it,” said Zebari, also a Kurd.
Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, one of Iraq’s top Shiite politicians, rejected the idea while in Amman, Jordan, saying it would be unrealistic to debate Iraq’s future outside the country. He said Iraq’s government was the only party qualified to find solutions.
Former prime minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shiite with close Washington links, disagreed, saying Iraq could not solve its problems alone.
“It needs the participation and support of everyone and that’s a debt owed to the people of Iraq by foreign nations, to support Iraq and stop the bloodshed,” he said in an interview on Al-Jazeera TV.
In an interview with the BBC to be shown today, Annan said the level of violence in Iraq was much worse than other recent civil wars. He also agreed that the average Iraqi’s life was worse now than it was under Saddam Hussein’s regime.
“Given the level of violence, the level of killing and bitterness and the way that forces are arranged against each other, a few years ago when we had the strife in Lebanon and other places, we called that a civil war. This is much worse,” Annan said.
