Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Arabs Accused of Sowing Discord in Iraq

Iraq's president accused neighboring Arab states on Tuesday of sowing discord in the country by backing Iraqi politicians he labeled seditious - including a leading Iraqi Sunni Arab leader.

"Regrettably some Arab countries are aiding sedition," Jalal Talabani's office quoted him as saying in a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Iraq's president accused neighboring Arab states on Tuesday of sowing discord in the country by backing Iraqi politicians he labeled seditious - including a leading Iraqi Sunni Arab leader.

However, it said the president, a Kurd, singled out hard-line Sunni cleric Harith al-Dhari for special criticism, saying al-Dhari has "nothing to do other than incite sectarian and ethnic sedition." Al-Dhari regularly travels between Iraq and the Persian Gulf states, as well as Syria, Jordan and Egypt.

Al-Dhari, the head of the Association of Muslim Scholars, is a fervent critic of al-Maliki's Shiite-dominated government. In a television interview last week, he mocked a government offer to end three years of insurgency and bloody sectarian violence by negotiating with anti-government insurgents, excluding Sunni extremists, members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party, and those who fought U.S. troops in the country.

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