Iraq's President, Insurgent Groups Meet

[ECH1969]

President Jalal Talabani met recently with representatives of armed groups and is optimistic they may agree to lay down their weapons, his office said Sunday.

"I think we may reach an agreement with seven armed groups that visited me and I met with them," his office said in a statement, without indicating when the meeting took place.

It was the first time a senior Iraqi official has acknowledged meeting with figures from the insurgency, although U.S. officials have said privately they have conferred directly with Iraqis who claimed to have contacts with insurgents.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060430/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_insurgents

[ugarte]

1. One group calls a truce, a new group is born overnight

Same guys with a different name. Same old same old.

[Barrett808]

2. Nothing like "negotiating with terrorists"

And we have such a long and colorful history of doing it.

[FVZA_Colonel]

3. Talabani Hopeful After Meeting Insurgents

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060430/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq



Talabani Hopeful After Meeting Insurgents
By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - President Jalal Talabani has met with insurgent representatives and is optimistic they may agree to disarm, his office said Sunday — the first time a senior Iraqi official has acknowledged talks with the armed groups.

Bombs and drive-by shootings Sunday killed nine people in Iraq, and the bodies of seven Iraqi men who apparently were kidnapped and tortured were found in three areas of the capital.

The deadliest attack Sunday involved a roadside bomb that exploded on a highway south of Baghdad, killing three security contractors and wounding two. Police said the victims were all British. The British Embassy in Baghdad and the Foreign Office in London confirmed the attack but did not yet know the victims' nationalities, identities or employer.

In a statement, Talabani's office quoted him as saying: "I think we may reach an agreement with seven armed groups that visited me and I met with them."

[still_one]

4. which insurgents?

there is NOT one homogeneous group that we call insurgents