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Sunnis boycott Iraq talks, slam government
23.2.2006
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BAGHDAD, Feb 23
(Reuters) - Iraq's main Sunni Arab political group
boycotted a meeting called on Thursday to calm
sectarian tensions and said it did so in protest at
what it called the Shi'ite-led governments of
failure to protect Sunni mosques.
"The leadership of the Iraqi Accordance Front has
sent its apologies to the president to say they will
not attend today's meeting," senior Front official
Iyad al-Samarrai told Reuters.
"The government neglected to provide security for
our sites ... They did not condemn these acts of
aggression."
Dozens of people, mostly minority Sunnis, were
killed in Baghdad and elsewhere in 24 hours after
the bombing of a major Shi'ite shrine in Samarra,
police said. Dozens of Sunni mosques were also
attacked and Shi'ite militias took to the streets.
President Jalal Talabani, an ethnic Kurd, had called
the meeting at his residence in an effort to ease
tensions.
The meeting was scheduled to start around 10:30 a.m.
(0730 GMT), but officials later said it would take
place in the afternoon because the main Shi'ite
Alliance bloc, which dominates the interim
government, was holding an internal meeting in the
morning.
It was not clear if broader talks would now go ahead
without the presence of the Accordance Front, which
includes the Iraqi Islamic Party. The Front won 44
of 275 seats when the once dominant Sunni minority
ended its boycott of the U.S.-sponsored political
process and took part in an election in December.
Reuters
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