Group tries to draw Iraq, US closer to compromise

BAGHDAD -- A group of Iraqi politicians and clerics said last night that they were close to brokering a deal between US officials and local leaders in Fallujah, the scene of the country's bloodiest fighting in a year, in which US troops would withdraw from a hospital in a good-will gesture and tribal elders would restrain guerrilla fighters.

Members of the Iraqi Islamic Party ferried the Fallujah delegation past the US Marines' cordon around the city to the occupation authority's Baghdad palace where the two sides held face-to-face talks late into the night, they said.

As the United States faces its worst political and military crises in Iraq -- a wave of anger over reported civilian deaths in a crackdown on insurgents in Fallujah and a revolt by radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr -- a handful of Iraqi leaders stand to gain stature among Iraqis and win new clout with the United States by acting as mediators.

The people leading the negotiations in Fallujah as well as separate discussions with Sadr in Najaf are not the secular, Western-oriented figures who bend Washington's ear but have little popular support, such as Ahmed Chalabi and Adnan Pachachi. Rather, they are religiously oriented leaders with historical power bases among observant Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims.

The negotiations could resolve Iraq's two most explosive conflicts, carve out a new role for politicians once viewed as marginal and push the United States to listen to a wider range of Iraqi voices. If the talks fall through, further violence could spread across the country and perhaps end the political careers of Iraq's only available crop of leaders.

But simply by drawing the United States into negotiations, the Iraqi delegations have exercised political muscle not seen since the fall of Saddam's Hussein's government. In Fallujah, the group appears to have persuaded the occupation authority to back away from its plan to destroy all guerrilla resistance in the city by force.

It is a defining moment for Iraq's stability, but also for members of the US-appointed Governing Council, who seemed to watch impotently from the sidelines as the violence spiraled last week, caught between US officials who ignored their advice and Iraqis who saw them as puppets of the occupation.

"If they are able to solve these problems, they will gain significant ground," said Dr. Hachem al-Hassani, who led the negotiations Tuesday and belongs to the Iraqi Islamic Party, whose chairman, Mohsen Abdul Hameed, sits on the Governing Council. "If they can't solve them, they'll be crippled."

The Fallujah talks were led by the Iraqi Islamic Party and the Council of Muslim Clerics, groups that have harshly criticized the occupation; a delegation of Shi'ite clerics and politicians claimed their own breakthrough last night in talks with Sadr in the southern city of Najaf.

Only those groups have the local clout to call on fighters to lay down arms, said Sheik Ayad al-Izzi, an Islamic Party member also involved in the talks. "You have to depend on the people with influence, not rely on the agents you chose," he said.

In interviews yesterday, politicians who took part in both the Fallujah and Najaf discussions said the past week showed the United States needed them -- and that the occupation chief, L. Paul Bremer III, made mistakes by ignoring them and taking a series of steps that they say escalated the conflict.

The crisis began after Bremer shut down Sadr's newspaper and arrested a cleric close to him, igniting protests April 5 that turned violent across the country. The same day, Marines charged into Fallujah to root out suspected insurgents who killed and mutilated four US contractors; the fighting ignited a wave of popular sympathy for Fallujah's residents.

As the problems unfolded, Governing Council members say Bremer failed to keep them informed of US moves and did not even tell them when he replaced the interior minister and appointed a new national security team.

"They humiliated and undermined the Governing Council," said Ismael Zayer, who edits a CPA-funded newspaper.

Council members denounced the violence by insurgents in Fallujah and by Sadr's militia -- but came under attack in the Iraqi press. Harth Al-Dhari, head of the Council of Imams, called for their resignations last Friday in a fiery sermon. The council later issued another statement lamenting the civilian casualties and criticizing the US handling of the situation.

The same day, nine of the most influential Governing Council members met with Bremer and complained that he was "acting on his own" said Adnan Hadi al-Assadi, an aide to Ibrahim Jaafari, head of the Shi'ite Dawa Party.

They then dispatched members of Dawa and other parties to Najaf to meet Sadr, and sent Islamic Party members to Fallujah, where the party has a strong base.

Islamic Party members convinced the Council of Muslim Clerics to tone down their position and join the call for negotiations, said Hassani, of the Islamic Party. The clerics' group also issued a ruling condemning kidnappers who had seized dozens of foreigners; many groups then let their hostages go.

Hassani and a representative of the clerics then traveled to Fallujah to persuade leaders there to meet with US officials. They also spoke with US officials, trying to convince them to back off demands that Fallujah's residents hand over lists of police who joined rebels during recent fighting, saying that would go against the town's code of tribal unity.

On Tuesday, top US and military officials met for seven hours with Fallujah representatives, Hassani said. US officials have refused to discuss details.

Iraqi officials say the proposal now on the table is for Marines was to give back control of the hospital to the city, to tend wounded and dead now being cared for in makeshift clinics -- if a cease-fire holds for 48 hours. Marines have unilaterally stopped offensive operations for several days, but say they will fire back if attacked.

The problem, Hassani said, is that the guerrillas may not answer to a single leader.

"Small elements of the resistance don't want to reach a solution," he said. "And for the Americans I think there are people who think a military solution is more feasible and faster."

Meanwhile, negotiators from the Dawa Party and representatives of senior clerics are trying to convince Sadr to lay down arms, while also telling the US that any military incursion into Najaf will spark mass resistance, Assadi said. Sadr said last night that he would negotiate, as US troops continued to move into position.

Asked whether he was optimistic, Assadi said, "Not really. Everything is decided in Washington anyway."

Anne Barnard can be reached at abarnard@globe.com.