Iraq-national Reconciliation
We may as well read about the political process in Iraq from Iran. It can't be any worse than reading about it from the careerist ditto-heads at the NYTimes/WaPo/... Below the break is the IRNA text.
Baghdad, Dec 16, IRNA
Iraqi launched a national reconciliation council on Saturday to stop the bloodshed in the country.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki government hopes it will halt Iraqi inexorable slide into fratricidal bloodshed.
The government has invited 300 leaders from various groups, including some which have so far stood outside Iraq's post-Saddam political process, but it was not clear how many would brave Baghdad's violence and make the trip.
According to Iraqi officials, one of the key planks of the effort will be the possible inclusion of former members of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein's disbanded Baath Party, some of whom may be allowed to return to public life.
This will raise hackles among Shia whose majority community was persecuted by Saddam's Sunni-led regime, but is seen by many observers as a key first step in calming the violent insurgency.
Tens of thousands of Baathists and Saddam-era military officers were purged from public service in the aftermath of the March 2003 US-led invasion and many went on to swell the ranks of groups fighting the new Shia-led government.
There is now a growing consensus that more junior party members not proven to have supported Saddam-era atrocities or the post-invasion rebellion should be allowed into the political process as a gesture of reconciliation.
Nasser al-Ani, a Sunni lawmaker and the official spokesman of the conference, confirmed that Baathists living abroad were among those invited.
"Probably some Baathists will attend," he said. "At the very least they will send representatives."
Abbas al-Bayati, a member of Iraq's dominant Shia parliamentary bloc, went further, adding that many Baathists might be allowed to return to their former positions in government, universities and state-run companies.
"Individual Baathists will participate. They will explain their point of view and their positions," he confirmed.
"The conference will limit the number of those to whom the law of de-Baathification applies to 2,000 people, he added.
"The other former Baathists will either be considered retired and receive pensions or can get their old jobs back."
There has been no discussion of removing Iraq's constitutional ban on the Baath Party as a political entity, but individual former members may be allowed back into a civil service starved of their administrative experience.