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Security
talks stumbled over Mehdi Army fighters' handing over their
weapons
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BAGHDAD,
August 30 (IslamOnline.net & Net & News Agencies) – As what
the Iraqi interim government calls "security talks" stumbled
Monday, August 30, over the thorny issue of weapons' handover, Prime
Minister Iyad Allawi bluntly played the card of the US-led "war
on terror".
Talks
between the Iraqi government and the office of firebrand Shiite
scholar Moqtada Sadr, aimed at ending violence in the Baghdad slum of
Sadr City, were stumbling on the fate of the Mehdi Army's weapons,
according to Iraqi police Monday.
Sadr
City police chief Colonel Maaruf Alami told Agence France-Presse (AFP)
a ten-point roadmap drafted by National Security Adviser Muwafaq Al-Rubaie
had been delivered to Sadr's office Monday.
"The
talks are stumbling on the final point" which urges the rebel
militia to hand over its weapons, Alami said.
The
document calls for a seven-day truce, states that US troops should
stop cracking down on Sadr's militia and enter the sprawling
flashpoint neighborhood only for reconstruction purposes.
It
also demands that the Mehdi Army stop attacking US bases, as well as
Iraqi security forces and translators.
The
ten points also include a commitment to rebuild the impoverished
neighborhood and compensate residents who have been affected by months
of fighting and adds that the Iraqi police will be responsible for
conducting patrols in the area.
The
letter was handed to the head of Sadr City office, Sheikh Yusif Al-Nasir.
The
talks come three days after the end of a bloody standoff between the
Mehdi Army and US troops in
the holy city of Najaf.
Allawi
has vowed to crush any militiamen who refuse to disarm after top
Shiite scholar Grand
Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani secured the withdrawal of Sadr's
fighters from the central shrine towns of Najaf and Kufa.
But
fighters left Najaf Friday without handing over their weapons,
reportedly hiding them in caches.
The
Sadr City neighborhood was quiet on Monday morning.
Allawi
Sings 'Terror Song'
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"The
campaign against terrorism must be global one. Because the
challenge really is global," Allawi said
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Meanwhile,
US-picked Allawi used the kidnapping of two French journalists,
instantly denounced by Muslims
from Baghdad to Paris, to reiterate Washington's message of
"the need to fight global terrorism".
Allawi
said in an interview published in the Italian capital Rome Monday that
the kidnap shows that no country can remain neutral in Iraq and
choosing not to send troops to aid Baghdad is no guarantee against
terrorism.
"No
civilized country can draw back. The campaign against terrorism must
be global one. Because the challenge really is global," the
Corriere della Sera daily quoted Allawi as saying, according to
AFP.
"Neutrality
doesn't exist, as the kidnapping of the French journalists has
shown," Allawi told the Italian newspaper.
France
bitterly opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq and resolved not to send
any troops to the country, even in a peacekeeping capacity.
"The
French are deluding themselves if they think they can remain outside
of this. Today, the extremists are targeting them too," Allawi
said.
Allawi
has taken a radical position against Iraqi powers opposed to the
presence of US-led troops on Iraqi soil and mounting bitter armed
resistance, vowing to crush all such powers.
Read
more about Iraq..
Allawi
Helped CIA Sabotage Iraq: Report
Allawi's
Selection Followed PR Campaign In U.S.: Report
U.S.
Forced Allawi On U.N., Iraqis: NY Times
