Rebel ClericAcceptsTruce Terms-(now negotiate how it would be implemented

[papau]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBXFHDO1YD.html

Radical Shiite Cleric Reportedly Accepts Peace Plan to End Fighting in Najaf
By Abdul Hussein Al-Obeidi
Associated Press Writer

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr accepted a peace plan Wednesday to end fighting in Najaf that would disarm his militiamen and remove them from a holy shrine where they are hiding out, according to an al-Sadr spokesman. However, al-Sadr wanted to negotiate how the deal would be implemented.

The cleric's decision came just hours after Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan said the government was prepared to raid the revered Imam Ali shrine as early as Wednesday to root out the militants.

The agreement could spell the end of the two-week resurgence of violence in this holy city that enraged many of the country's majority Shiites and posed the greatest test yet for the fledgling government of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

The cease-fire deal was presented to al-Sadr's aides in Najaf on Tuesday by an eight-person delegation sent by the Iraqi National Conference, meeting in Baghdad. Al-Sadr himself declined to meet with the mediators. The proposal demanded the cleric's militia drop its arms, withdraw from the shrine and transform itself into a political party in exchange for amnesty.

Sheik Hassan al-Athari, an official at al-Sadr's office in Baghdad, said the cleric had agreed to the plan but wanted the delegation to return to Najaf to negotiate how it would be implemented and to ensure his militants would not be arrested. He said al-Sadr had other, more minor conditions, but did not elaborate. <snip>


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/18/international/middleeast/18CND-IRAQ.html?hp

Rebel Cleric Accepts Truce Terms, Iraqi Conference Is Told
By SABRINA TAVERNISE

Published: August 18, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 18 — The rebel cleric Moktada al-Sadr has accepted conditions proposed by an Iraqi delegation to end fierce fighting in the holy city of Najaf, including the withdrawal of his militia from one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, a national conference was told today.

The conditions were delivered on Tuesday by a delegation from the Iraqi national conference that flew to the city in American army helicopters and met the cleric's aides in the Imam Ali shrine. The delegation had also urged Mr. Sadr to disarm and transform his fighters into an organization that would join the political process.

Mr. Sadr refused to meet with Tuesday's delegation in person, citing the continuing fighting between his men and the Americans.

For almost two weeks, his forces have battled Americans in Najaf, in the Sadr City district in Baghdad, and in several cities across southern Iraq. Earlier today, Iraq's defense minister, Hazim al-Shaalan, said that Iraqi, not American, forces would be the ones to take any action to eject the militia from the shrine. He demanded that Mr. Sadr's militia surrender, according to news reports quoting his remarks on Arab television.

But in what could signal an end to the standoff, a delegate to the national conference, which has been meeting in Baghdad since Sunday to form a national assembly, read a letter that she said was "news" from Mr. Sadr's office of his "approval of the conditions that the national conference has suggested."
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[papau]

1. Dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x759663