Iraqi Leader Outlines Plan for Reconciliation

During a televised appearance on "Fox News Sunday," Sen. Carl M. Levin (Mich.), the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said it was "unconscionable" that Iraqis would consider offering amnesty to those who have killed U.S. troops.

"For heaven's sake, we liberated that country," Levin said. "We got rid of a horrific dictator. We've paid a tremendous price. More than 2,500 Americans have given up their lives. The idea that they should even consider talking about amnesty for people who have killed people who liberated their country is unconscionable."

At a news conference Sunday afternoon in Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, said he supported the reconciliation plan and urged Iraqi leaders "to move expeditiously in implementing this project" in order "to begin to take responsibility for bringing sectarian violence to an end."

Khalilzad named two groups that he considered to be "irreconcilables": "those who want the old regime back and those who are al-Qaeda terrorist supporters."

But others who laid down their weapons and accepted the Iraqi government would be offered a voice in the political process, he said.

"All wars must come to an end, and the hostility has to be replaced by reconciliation," Khalilzad said. "We understand the need for an amnesty."

The plan presented a list of goals, including solving the problem of militias, ending human rights abuses in prisons and confronting unemployment. But it offered few details on how they would be accomplished.

"How do they differentiate between terrorists and people who are insurgents, how do they decide who to talk to and who to avoid, how do they know who has committed crimes, and which crimes do they care about?" asked Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish legislator. "All these things need a bit of explanation and specification and need to be cleared up."

Othman said that 11 Sunni insurgent groups issued a joint communique saying they would not entertain the amnesty offer until the Americans leave Iraq.

Nevertheless, the reconciliation plan was endorsed by a wide range of Iraqi politicians. Adnan al-Dulaimi, the leader of the Iraqi Accordance Front, which represents the three main Sunni political parties in parliament, said it was a "first step toward security and stability."

The plan also included a pledge to compensate victims of terrorism and of the former government, and a commitment to building up the Iraqi armed forces in preparation for the withdrawal of foreign troops.

Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said on Baghdad TV that Sunni insurgent groups had been in "negotiations with the Americans for a while now."

The insurgents "are convinced that the main enemy to Iraq right now is Iran and that . . . therefore the coalition forces are no longer the first enemy and, accordingly, they should reach an agreement," Talabani said.

Special correspondents K.I. Ibrahim, Saad al-Izzi and Naseer Nouri contributed to this report.