Cleric Sadr offers peace deal

News.com.au

From correspondents in Najaf
May 12, 2004

REBEL Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr today offered to end his insurgency in Iraq if the US-led coalition agreed to negotiations, according to leaflets handed out by his office in Najaf.

That's all the information. Who knows?

UPDATE AFP has more now including:

"I am ready to end everything if the occupation forces officially ask for negotiations on condition that these negotiations are just and transparent and under the stewardship of the Shiite religious authorities," according to a statement signed by him on Tuesday.

The offer followed a demand by the new provincial governor of Najaf, Adnan al-Zorfi, that Sadr disband his militia.

Zorfi also announced he was seeking 4,000 new members of the paramilitary Iraqi Civil Defense Corps to keep the peace in the city.