London --- Dr. Mahdi Al Hafez, head of the preparatory committee for the National Unity Conference, which would be held in Baghdad, confirmed that more than 800 Iraqi political and social identities from all races, religions and sects, shall participate in the conference, which has been initiated on behalf of the National Accord Movement, led by Iyad Allawi, former Prime Minister.

Al Hafez, planning minister in the former government and head of the Iraqi Center for Development and National Dialogue, stated that a number of accredited Arab diplomats in Baghdad would attend the conference, including the Lebanese ambassador, who would be carrying a message from Amr Mousa, Secretary-General of the Arab League, who was supposed to participate in the conference. This has been cancelled due to the postponement of Mousa's visit to the Iraqi capital until next Thursday. Al Hafez pointed out that postponing the visit was due to the fact that Jalal Talebani would not be present in Baghdad before Thursday. Ashraf Qazi, representative of the UN Secretary-General in Iraq would also participate.

In a phone call with Al Sharq Al Awsat yesterday, Al Hafez, who is heading the preparatory committee of the conference, pointed out that the conference members are "representatives of democratic parties, movements and trends, civil community organizations and independent identities." He added that the participants are "from all over the country, including democratic Islamic forces." He pointed out that in addition to the national accord movement, the major political forces that would participate in the conference include: The Kurdistani Democratic Party, the Kurdistani National Union, the Iraqi Islamic Party, the Communist Party, the Democratic National Party, Al Fadeelah (virtue) Party, the Arab Socialist Movement, the Democratic Assyrian Movement, the Iraqi Democratic Coalition, the Islamic Democratic Trend and the Unity Party.

Al Hafez stated that Allawi shall launch the conference with a speech and would present the work paper that the attendees shall discuss, which is under the title of "Towards a comprehensive political approach for rescuing the country and national unity". He pointed out that the paper "includes a detailed analysis for the defects in the general political situation and the aspects of the aggravating crisis in the country. It also calls for gathering all national efforts for creating the broadest democratic bloc that adopts an Iraqi national project for advancing the duties of this stage and responding to its major events, especially the coming parliamentary elections," which are supposed to be conducted next December. He added that the conference would end up with a final statement that specifies the characteristics of the aimed bloc and creating a general secretariat for following up with the execution of decisions.

In response to a question on whether the conference would seek for creating an electoral slate for the participating forces and organizations, Al Hafez said, "We hope for the creation of the broadest and strongest alliance of democratic forces, trends, organizations and identities that can present an effective democratic bloc." He added, "We are looking forward to create the Iraqi National Bloc, which carries the national project that is not based on quotas; sectarianism in specific."

Al Sharq Al Awsat