Kuwait Times

Published Date: May 16, 2007

LONDON: British military officers in Iraq have been party to secret talks with Sunni insurgent leaders there, Iraq's president said in an interview published yesterday. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph while in London, Jalal Talabani added that Sunni rebels were shifting their perceptions to view Shiite-dominated Iran as more of a threat than foreign forces. "There are resistance movements that are now meeting with the prime minister, with me, with British military officers and the ambassador for reconciliation talks," Talabani told the paper.

"The biggest step forward would be to have the full participation of all the main groups in Iraq. We need national unity. We must convince the Sunni Arabs they are a real partner." Talabani reiterated comments made at Cambridge University last week when he said coalition troops would have to stay in Iraq until the end of next year, at which point they would be able to leave. He also said Sunni insurgents felt more threatened by Iran than by coalition troops.  "There is a big change in the mentality of the Sunni Arab," he said.

"They are now considering Iran is the danger and no longer considering America the danger." Talabani also linked Iran's battles against internal dissent with attacks against British forces in southern Iraq. "When there are some attacks (in Iran) they think it is British-backed activities, so they (the Iranians) do some limited things in Basra," he said.

Meanwhile, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf yesterday suggested that a Muslim peacekeeping force could be sent to war-torn Iraq under the United Nations. Musharraf made the suggestion as foreign ministers from Islamic nations gathered in Pakistan's capital for a conference discussing ways of combating alleged "Islamophobia." "If all the warring factions... different factions, if they accept, then maybe a Muslim peacekeeping force under the United Nations umbrella could be looked at," Musharraf told the conference. "We have to stop all outside interference in Iraq, the mass killings... the carnage that is taking place there has to stop."

Military ruler Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, has promoted a political philosophy of what he calls "enlightened moderation" aimed at reducing tensions within the Muslim world and between Muslims and the West. He said poor living conditions were breeding extremism and called for collective efforts for the socio-economic development of the Muslim world. "There is a suicidal backwardness, there are acute general disparities and low living conditions" in the Muslim world, the Pakistani leader said. "The Islamic world on the whole is on on a downward slide." The three-day meeting of foreign ministers is being attended by some 600 delegates from the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference. - Agencies