‘Makkah call for end to Iraq killing may go unheard’

The 10-point " Makkah Document" was issued by 29 clerics from both sides of Iraq's religious divide when they gathered Friday in Saudi Arabia during Ramadan under an initiative by the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

The document draws on verses of the Quran and sayings of the Prophet Mohammed, and stipulates that "spilling Muslim blood is forbidden".

It also calls for safeguarding the two communities' holy places, defending the unity and territorial integrity of Iraq and the release of "all innocent detainees".

The declaration was welcomed as "a positive step" Saturday by Adnan al-Dulaimi, who heads the National Concord Front, the largest Sunni bloc in the Iraqi parliament.

"We call on the authorities, the parties, the tribes and religious leaders to stick to the declaration and to support it," Dulaimi told a Baghdad news conference.

"The government has a major role to play in implementing the document, especially with regard to freeing prisoners," he said.

But according to Abdel Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief of the London-based Arabic daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, the religious leaders' appeal for the bloodshed to cease is likely to fall on deaf ears.

"Despite its doubly symbolic character, this appeal will suffer the same fate as the one issued after last November's Cairo conference, held under the aegis of the Arab League," Atwan told AFP.