URGENT: Number of Iraqi armed groups decide to throw their arms, official says

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com – A number of Iraqi armed groups have decided to throw their arms and enter in the political process, the Iraqi Minister of National Reconciliation, Amer al-Khuza’e said on Wednesday, calling on the armed groups outside Iraq to enter in dialogue and throw their arms too. “The Ministry of National Reconciliation has opened dialogue with armed groups outside Iraq, in order to encourage them to enter in the political process,” Minister Khuza’e said in a news conference. He said that a number of armed groups inside Iraq, in its capital of Baghdad and other provinces of Salahaddin, Kirkuk, Diala and Mosul, have decided to throw their arms and join the political process. “Those groups had been within certain detachments who had been resisting the American Forces,” he said, adding that they exceeded five groups, who did not attack Iraqi citizens, and had felt sure that such an accord would pass in its correct form,” the Minister said. On his part, one of the leaders of the said groups, who attended the news conference said: “The armed groups highly assess the Reconciliation Conference with the Iraqi government,” adding that “they decided to commit themselves to the law, throw their arms and work for building Iraq and achieving success of the political process.” “A number of groups tried to undermine the national reconciliation, but the armed groups have decided not to raise arms again, in response to the current political process and the Agreement on the withdrawal of the American forces from Iraq,” he said. RT / SKH     1235