Iraqi Leaders Attempt Reconciliation

The New York Times reports that Iraqi leaders are attempting to foster post-election reconciliation:

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s leading politicians — government ministers, clerics and sheiks, not a single woman among them — gathered Thursday over a lunch of roasted meat and rice at the arabesque Peace Palace on the bank of the Tigris. It was an effort to foster reconciliation after the country’s intensely disputed election, but ended with little of it in evidence.

Most conspicuous by his absence was Ayad Allawi, the man who still claims the right to form and lead the next government but who slowly appears to be falling short of that goal.

Mr. Allawi departed Iraq for Jordan on Wednesday evening and the next day sent his regrets in writing, explaining that he had already twice postponed a meeting with an Arab head of state and could not possibly do so again.

The gathering, described by one newspaper as “a political feast,” came 74 days after Iraqis went to the polls and emerged with an inconclusive result that is still the subject of mostly behind-the-scenes jockeying.

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