{"id":2957,"date":"2009-08-06T13:37:21","date_gmt":"2009-08-06T18:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/?p=2957"},"modified":"2016-06-06T13:44:39","modified_gmt":"2016-06-06T18:44:39","slug":"iraqi-resistance-leaders-speak-out-on-controversial-negotiations-with-the-united-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/?p=2957","title":{"rendered":"Iraqi Resistance Leaders Speak Out on Controversial Negotiations with the United States"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Andrew McGregor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>August 6, 2009<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After documents were leaked in mid-July that suggested an alliance of Iraqi resistance leaders had been meeting with a delegation of U.S. diplomats and military officials in an unnamed \u201cneighboring country,\u201d it has since been confirmed that such talks between the Political Council of the Iraqi Resistance (PCIR) and the United States took place twice this year in Istanbul, with Turkey acting as a mediator (Hurriyet, July 24; Today\u2019s Zaman, July 27; see also Eurasia Daily Monitor, July 27).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Iraq-negotiations.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2958\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2958\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Iraq-negotiations.jpg\" alt=\"Iraq negotiations\" width=\"617\" height=\"350\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">(Indian Express)<\/p>\n<p>News of the meetings was quickly denounced by the Iraqi Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, who expressed astonishment that the United States was prepared to meet with \u201cterrorists\u201d without the knowledge of the Baghdad government (al-Jazeera, July 25). Both the United States and Turkey were accused of mounting an assault on Iraqi sovereignty and interfering with Iraq\u2019s internal affairs (Hurriyet, July 24).<\/p>\n<p>PCIR spokesman Abd al-Rahman al-Baghdadi insists the PCIR did not actually negotiate with the United States, but only discussed \u201cconditions for negotiations.\u201d He claims the U.S. delegation confirmed that \u201cthe mistake of invading Iraq by the previous administration should be corrected.\u201d He denied rumors circulating in Iraq that the discussions included the possibility of PCIR inclusion in the political process. \u201cWe do not recognize any political process under the occupation.\u201dAl-Baghdadi described the main points of the PCIR\u2019s \u201cprotocol of negotiations\u201d in an interview with al-Arab:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The U.S. administration must issue an official apology to the Iraqi people for crimes committed in Iraq.<\/li>\n<li>Iraqis who suffered from the U.S. occupation must be compensated.<\/li>\n<li>All detainees and prisoners must be released.<\/li>\n<li>The United States must recognize Iraqis\u2019 resistance to occupation as a legitimate right (Al-Arab [Doha], July 31).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The meetings were held in March and May of this year. Al-Baghdadi declined to name the US diplomats and military personnel at the meetings \u201caccording to their request.\u201d The spokesman says the PCIR\u2019s stipulations were taken to Washington with the promise of a response by the end of June, but nothing has been heard from the Americans since then. While al-Baghdadi says the PCIR is \u201cnot concerned by their lack of response,\u201d he believes \u201cthe issue is on hold but not over.\u201d He also confirmed that the PCIR had insisted that no one from the Iraqi government attend the meetings.<\/p>\n<p>The March 6 document signed by the PCIR and the U.S. Government reportedly called for the PCIR to name 15 representatives as a negotiating team. Turkey would act as mediator and guarantor for the duration of the negotiations. Should any of the Iraqi representatives be arrested inside or outside of Iraq during the discussions, both Turkey and the United States pledged to do everything possible to obtain their release (Al-Sharq al-Awsat, July 26).<\/p>\n<p>Ali al-Jubouri, the secretary-general of the PCIR, has insisted that one of the two documents signed with the Americans include U.S. recognition of the Iraqi resistance, describing this as \u201ca major achievement\u201d for the resistance (al-Jazeera, July 15; July 25; IslamOnline July 24).<\/p>\n<p>Reaction to the talks from Baghdad\u2019s Shiite politicians has been overwhelmingly negative. MP Hamid al-Malah, a leading member of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), demanded to know \u201cwhether this is an attempt by the Americans to bring back terrorism to Iraq\u201d (Al-Sharq al-Awsat, July 26). Others fear that the PCIR acts as a front for unrepentant Ba\u2019athists like former Vice President Ezzat Ibrahim al-Douri.<\/p>\n<p>Muhammad Bashar al-Faydi, spokesman for the Sunni Hayat al-Ulama al-Muslimin (Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq &#8211; AMS), notes that the PCIR represents only four of over 100 resistance factions in Iraq. Thirteen of these groups have authorized the secretary-general of the AMS, Shaykh Harith al-Dari, to speak on their behalf on political issues and in potential negotiations (Al-Sharq al-Awsat, July 26, see also Terrorism Monitor, December 27, 2006). The al-Azhar educated shaykh is a vocal opponent of both al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Awakening councils. The PCIR spokesman says the alliance has \u201cno objection\u201d to authorizing Shaykh al-Dari to negotiate on their behalf (al-Arab, July 31).<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>This article first appeared in the August 6, 2009 issue of the Jamestown Foundation\u2019s Terrorism Monitor\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andrew McGregor August 6, 2009 After documents were leaked in mid-July that suggested an alliance of Iraqi resistance leaders had been meeting with a delegation of U.S. diplomats and military officials in an unnamed \u201cneighboring country,\u201d it has since been &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/?p=2957\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iraq"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2957"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2961,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2957\/revisions\/2961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}