Iraqi Forum to Send Peace Envoys to Najaf

Iraqi political and religious leaders meeting to choose an interim national assembly voted Monday to dispatch a high-level delegation to the holy city of Najaf to try to avert a showdown between armed supporters of cleric Muqtada Sadr and U.S. and Iraqi forces.

The delegation of several dozen Iraqis intends to travel this morning to Najaf, where intense fighting broke out Aug. 5. The group plans to present Sadr and his forces with a list of demands: Leave the Imam Ali Mosque where they are dug in, disarm and join the political process. In exchange, Sadr and members of his Al Mahdi militia would receive amnesty and safe passage out of the shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam.

Although Sadr has agreed to meet with the delegation, it was far from clear whether he would abandon his battle to drive U.S. forces out of Iraq -- a fight he has vowed to pursue until “victory or martyrdom.” Negotiations with representatives of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi broke down Saturday after barely 24 hours, and officials announced that “military clearing operations” would resume to “establish law and order” in Najaf.

American armor and Iraqi forces have closed in on the Imam Ali Mosque in the last few days, prompting fears that an all-out clash is imminent. If the shrine were damaged, that could ignite a wider Shiite uprising.

Early today, Army and Marine units attacked Al Mahdi positions in the Old City, including a school and an office complex about 1,000 yards west of the shrine from which militants had been firing at U.S. convoys.

U.S. forces arrested 26 Iraqis in the operation. There were loud exchanges of fire afterward as the militia tried to retake the positions.

Monday’s move to dispatch a new negotiating team was spearheaded by Hussein Sadr, a distant cousin of Muqtada Sadr and a moderate attending the national conference of more than 1,000 delegates in the Iraqi capital. “We must try” for a peaceful solution, he said.

It was unclear how closely the new delegation to Najaf was coordinating with Allawi’s administration. On Sunday, the national conference demanded a cease-fire, called on Allawi to pursue negotiations and sent a small committee to present him with its ideas.

Barham Salih, the deputy prime minister for national security, said Monday that he hoped Sadr would accept the conference’s demands.

“This country has seen so much violence and so much bitterness. It’s time that we seek a way out,” he said.

The national conference was to elect a 100-member national assembly Monday to counterbalance Allawi’s government until elections next year. But with Najaf dominating the gathering, the selection of the council was postponed until today.

Some of those gathered said it was only natural that the delegates would seek to address the Najaf crisis immediately. Doing so, they said, offered the chance to demonstrate to the Iraqi people that the gathering -- which has been denounced by Sadr and others as a tool of the United States -- is not only legitimate but relevant.

“It is a normal thing that this issue of al-Sadr draws great attention because there is a fire in all of Iraq,” delegate Jawad Maliky of the Dawa Party told Associated Press. “The abnormal thing is to neglect this fire.”

Organizers had touted the national convention as a significant step toward establishing democracy in Iraq, and the free-wheeling speeches from the floor -- on topics as diverse as justice for victims of Saddam Hussein’s regime and the need to amend marriage regulations -- gave a taste of the eagerness with which people have embraced the freedom to speak out.

The violence in Najaf, though, has inspired delegates to challenge Allawi’s government sooner than expected.

As the gathering discussed the Najaf situation Monday, Hussein Sadr received repeated bursts of applause as he told militant groups to disarm, deeming it a “red line” in Iraqi politics.

“Any advanced country ... should not allow for armed militias to be roaming in it. Therefore, we need to cooperate to convince Mr. Muqtada Sadr and the dear brothers in the Mahdi army to turn the organization into a political party,” he said.

He urged the cleric to clear out from the Imam Ali Mosque, which Shiites revere as the burial place of the prophet Muhammad’s son-in-law.

“The religious shrines are not anyone’s personal property,” he said. “They are holy places open to everyone.”

The resolution was passed by a solid majority, but not without rancor. Falah Hassan, a Sadr supporter and member of the Shiite Political Council, stormed out of the conference, accusing participants of “contributing to the slaughter” by pressuring Sadr instead of pushing the government to call off its troops.

While some conference participants said Sadr might feel pressure to negotiate because his forces are being backed into a corner, others such as Samir Shakir Mahmoud Sumaidy were skeptical.

“He might accept them and renege on them in the next hour. He has accepted similar conditions before” and not fulfilled them, said Sumaidy, who served as Iraq’s interior minister during an uprising by Sadr’s militia in April and May, which ended in an uneasy truce shattered by the current round of fighting.

“Ultimately, if he refuses to disarm his militia, it will have to be disarmed forcefully,” Sumaidy said. “This resolution today gives him that clear choice -- he has to say yes or no. If he says no, the government will to a large extent be absolved” of blame if it sends in troops.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military reported Monday that a third soldier died Sunday in fighting in Najaf. Two servicemen were initially reported slain.