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Iraqi leaders call for pullout timetable
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-22 18:44
Reaching out to the Sunni Arab community, Iraqi leaders
called for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces and said Iraq's
opposition had a "legitimate right" of resistance.
Jawad al-Khalisi, a Shiite Muslim cleric of
the National Foundation Congress, center, listens to Raad a-Alousi, Iraqi
ambassador to the Arab League, left, as Majed Al-Sulieman, an Iraqi Sunni
leader, right, looks on during the last day of a three-day preparatory
meeting of the Iraqi reconciliation conference at the Arab league in
Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Nov.21, 2005. Leaders of Iraq's sharply divided
Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis, seeking common ground for their political
future together, agreed Monday there should be a timetable for the
withdrawal of foreign troops and that resistance was the right of all _
but that acts of terror should be condemned.
[AP] |
The communique — finalized by Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni leaders Monday —
condemned terrorism but was a clear acknowledgment of the Sunni position that
insurgents should not be labeled as terrorists if their operations do not target
innocent civilians or institutions designed to provide for the welfare of Iraqi
citizens.
The leaders agreed on "calling for the withdrawal of foreign troops according
to a timetable, through putting in place an immediate national program to
rebuild the armed forces ... control the borders and the security situation" and
end terror attacks.
The preparatory reconciliation conference, held under the auspices of the
Arab League, was attended by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Iraqi Shiite and
Kurdish lawmakers as well as leading Sunni politicians.
Sunni leaders have been pressing the Shiite-majority
government to agree to a timetable for the withdrawal of all foreign troops. The
statement recognized that goal, but did not lay down a specific time —
reflecting instead the government's stance that Iraqi security forces must be
built up first.
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