Sunni bloc boycotts Iraq unity conference

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq's main Sunni parliamentary bloc boycotted a crucial national reconciliation conference that opened on Tuesday, delivering a fresh blow to the country's battered political process.

The two-day conference is being held ahead of Thursday's fifth anniversary of the launch of the US-led invasion on March 20, 2003 amid international concern that insufficient progress has been made on the path to reconciliation.

It also coincides with a visit by US Vice President Dick Cheney, one of the architects of the war that toppled Iraq's former regime, for talks with rival Iraqi leaders and top US officials.

Among those attending the Baghdad conference were Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and parliament speaker Mahmud Mashhadani, and several other leaders...