Some Sunnis Hint at Peace Terms in Iraq, U.S. Says
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN and JOHN F. BURNS
Published: May 15, 2005
WASHINGTON, May 14 - The Bush administration, struggling to cope with a recent intensification of insurgent violence in Iraq, has received signals from some radical Sunni Arab leaders that they would abandon fighting if the new Shiite majority government gave Sunnis a significant voice in the country's political evolution, administration officials said this week.
The officials said American contacts with what they called "rejectionist" elements among Sunni Arabs - the governing minority under Saddam Hussein, which has generated much of the insurgency, and largely boycotted January's elections - showed that many wanted to join in the political system, including the writing of a permanent constitution.
But the political feuding that delayed the formation of the government for nearly three months after the elections has so far blocked the kind of concessions the Sunnis are demanding.
In particular, the Americans are pressing for Shiite hard-liners in the new Iraqi government to consider conciliatory gestures that would include allowing former Baath Party members to serve in the government, granting pensions to former army officers who served under Mr. Hussein and setting up courts that would try detainees seized in the anti-insurgency drive. Many of the detainees have been held for a year or more without legal recourse.
The government that took office almost two weeks ago under Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari had a faltering start, leaving several cabinet posts earmarked for Sunni Arabs vacant, then filling them with officials - including a defense minister - who were rejected by some hard-line Sunni representatives....
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/international/middleeast/15strategy.html?oref=login 
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