6/11/2005
American diplomats and army commanders have held indirect talks with anti-occupation fighters in Iraq, the first officially sanctioned contact between the two sides in two years of violence.
According to a U.S. embassy official in Baghdad efforts were under way to "engage" elements of the resistance in an apparent softening of the Bush administration's opposition to negotiations.
"In order to achieve stability and [an] end to the (violence) and stop Iraqis from being killed in large numbers, the "insurgency" has to be addressed," the official told reporters.
"I don't think the people we are sitting in the room with are directly operational, but they have relationships with them, sometimes through family ties, sometimes through previous associations with the previous regime."
The briefing was on the record but under embassy rules the official could not be named.
He did not elaborate on the substance of the talks and it was unclear which of the anti-occupation groups had been engaged.
The contacts, conducted mainly through Sunni Arab tribal and religious leaders, were limited to factions which could be involved in mainstream politics, the official added.
The U.S. has made public overtures to Iraq's Sunni Arabs but until now drew the line at contacts with the anti-occupation fighters.
The administration has come under increasing pressure to show progress in a war which claims approximately two American lives daily and is blamed for shortfalls in army recruitment.
A recent Gallup poll showed 57% of Americans do not believe it was worth invading in March 2003.
It is no secret that some U.S. commanders on the ground have informal and indirect contacts with their opponents, mostly via Sunni mosques and tribal elders. The embassy official suggested those channels have become more formalised.
Two years ago President Bush's response was "Bring 'em on". But as casualties soared and the nascent Iraqi state reeled, the U.S. reached out to the Ba'athists and Sunnis, encouraging, for example, the country's new Shia and Kurdish rulers to scale back purges known as "de-Ba'athification".
Earlier this week an Arab Sunni politician and former electricity minister, Ayham al-Samarie, said two anti-occupation groups were ready to talk to the government.
The prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, said yesterday he hoped to draw "all sectors" of Iraqi society into the political process and hinted that this included anti-occupation fighters.
The ruling Shia and Kurdish coalition promised to give Sunni Arabs a greater role in writing a new constitution by increasing their membership on the drafting committee, where they occupy two out of 55 seats.
Some officials said Sunnis would be given an additional 13 seats, matching Kurdish representation, but President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, said the government would meet Sunni demands for an extra 20 to 25 seats.