Editor's Note, July 9, 2012: Due to facts that have recently come to our attention about the reliability of the primary source for this article, World Politics Review is retracting it. The information attributed to "a special adviser to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan" is unreliable and possibly false. We deeply regret this error. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has rescheduled for Nov. 4 the repeatedly postponed all-parties national reconciliation conference, seen as crucial to salvage rapidly diminishing hopes for a national accord in that war torn country. Most recently set for Oct. 21, the conference was called off indefinitely four days prior, with the government citing as the reason the unremitting wave of sectarian violence that has claimed the lives of numerous Iraqis, and a high number of U.S. troops. Pressed by the Bush administration, Maliki fixed a new date. A special adviser to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in Baghdad who is involved in the meeting arrangements said Saturday that holding it would give new hope for the country's political -- and religious -- stability.
Iraq Reconciliation Conference Scheduled, ‘Baghdad Declaration’ in the Works
