BAGHDAD — A conference intended to bring together Iraq’s rival sectarian groups foundered Tuesday when the leading Sunni political bloc boycotted the event and reiterated its demands for greater participation in the Shiite-led government.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki opened the conference by saying that reconciliation among rival factions is the “only rescue boat and the best solution to build a federal democratic Iraq.”
“We seriously regret that some stand watching and others try to bring down the political process and obstruct the work of the government,” said al-Maliki, who is Shiite.
National reconciliation here has always been primarily about bringing Shiites and Sunnis into closer political partnership, a chief reason the Bush administration increased U.S. troop levels last year.
But the boycott of the Baghdad conference by the Iraqi Accordance Front, a Sunni political bloc, illustrated how divided the two groups remain.
“We are used to the prime minister speaking in a beautiful way about reconciliation and brotherhood. That’s all well, but on the ground there are a lot of obstacles he has put in the way of reconciliation,” said Alaa Makki, a Sunni parliament member with the Iraqi Islamic Party, which belongs to the Accordance Front.
Makki said his Sunni colleagues boycotted the conference because certain Sunni political and tribal leaders were not invited. He said the boycott was also meant to underscore the fact that their basic demands — greater participation in the political process and in the security forces — remain unmet.
Shiite politicians loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr were more dramatic in rejecting the conference, arriving before it began and departing once it was underway. Other smaller political parties also avoided the meeting.
Liwa Smaysim, a leader of the Sadrist political bloc, said its members chose to walk out of the conference because the central government is not enforcing arrest warrants against some senior government and security officials in southern cities.
“Where is the rule of law and where is the constitution that they are talking about?” he said.
In the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday, a car bomb killed three Iraqis and wounded 40 when it blew up outside an electronics store, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials. The blast destroyed the four-story building.
In Babil province, a roadside bomb exploded near a patrol of volunteer Sunni fighters aligned with U.S. forces, killing one of the fighters and injuring another, said Capt. Muthanna Ahmed, a provincial police spokesman.
