Reconciliation conference ends with failure

Ali Khaleel, Azzaman

The reconciliation conference the government convened to bring the disparate Iraqi groups together has failed. The organizers, in a bid to hide the failure, said the meeting was the first in a series of future gatherings aimed to reconciling Iraqis. There was no consensus even among the groups which attended the conference. Some factions withdrew as the conferees debated future moves while some key factions had already stayed away, particularly anti-U.S. groups. The conference’s failure is yet another blow to U.S. strategy. President George Bush was keen to see the conference reach at least some form an agreement so that he could sell his new Iraq strategy to U.S. public...

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