Iraqi Parties, After Meetings in Finland, Agree on Principles to Guide Further Talks

[groovedaddy]

BAGHDAD — After years of vicious fighting among Iraq’s fractious groups and some incomplete attempts at reconciliation, a ceremony here on Saturday marked a tiny step forward, at least symbolically.

The event was the result of several meetings in Helsinki, Finland, attended by a range of Iraqi politicians, as well as veterans from two other seemingly intractable conflicts, in Northern Ireland and South Africa, who have gone on to become political leaders.

The meetings, organized by a professor from the United States skilled in conflict resolution, included all of the main Iraqi political parties. They produced a document, unveiled Saturday, that outlined several principles for Iraq that the parties agreed upon, a first step in a process that experts in reconciliation say could take decades.

“Here you had them see how to deal with each other and there were a lot of people nodding, ‘We see what you’re talking about,’ ” said the professor, Padraig O’Malley of the University of Massachusetts in Boston, at a briefing last week.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/world/middleeast/06iraq.html?th&emc=th

[eridani]

1. So, looks like they don't really need us to hash things out

Why are we still there?

[groovedaddy]

2. OIL... n.t