Coalition negotiating with Insurgents?

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According to Time Coalition officials are secretly meeting with representitives of the more nationalist rather than fundamentalist insurgency groups with an eye to encouraging them to abandon armed conflict in favour of the political process - capitalising on divisions between the moderates and the real hardline headcases like Al Zarqawi in the light of high voter turnout for the recent elections, and the desire for and by Sunni leaders to take part in the proccess of creating the new constitution.

These meetings are unofficial but if theyre getting reported and guys like Welch are being named the White House cant not know about them. They havent progressed too far apparently beyond sounding each other out and theres also the issue that while the insurgent factions in question are secular they have a real problem with an Iranian influenced Iraqi government. As well as that the Shia-Kurds suffered a lot at the hands of the Insurgents, especially seeing as many of them are ex-Baathist figures, though not the real top dogs. So the Coalition will have a tough task in persuading both the moderate insurgents and the government to make peace with each other. And during all this Al-Zarqawi will not sit back and watch. Apparently insurgent factions have met to discuss setting up a party to represent their views, a more respectable face for the Coalition to deal with.

I think that this is a decent idea. If the secularists can be weaned away from Al-Zarqawis bunch it can only help isolate and weaken the fundamentalists, as well as helping to ensure the secularist threads of Iraqi society are better represented. With Sunnis viewing their non-participation in the last election as a mistake, now is the best time to extend an olive branch to the non-fanatics and bring a sizeable chunk of both the insurgents and the politicians on board. Of course, as recent peace proccesses have shown, it wont be easy in the slightest and the tendency will to try and retain the paramilitaries whilst also getting into government. And it remains to be seen how the Iraqis can prosecute a campaign against Al Zarqawis Sunni supporters without antagonising the other Sunnis.