Egypt welcomes Mecca agreement among Iraqi factions

Egypt on Saturday welcomed the Mecca agreement reached by major Iraqi factions, in which Muslim Shiite and Sunni groups called for a stop to bloodshed and an end to sectarian violence, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said in a press statement.

Abul Gheit said the meeting in the Saudi holy city of Mecca mirrored the everyone's keenness on the safety and security of the Iraqis, the official news agency MENA said.

"All acts of violence and terrorism in Iraq have nothing to do with Islam. They are committed by a misled group that does not wish Iraqis any good", Abul Gheit said.

"Hands off Iraq" was Abul Gheit's call as he denounced any interference in the country's internal affairs and called for respecting Iraq's sovereignty and independence, according to MENA.

Abul Gheit expressed Egypt's full commitment to standing by the Iraqi people until security and peace were realized, it said.

Earlier in the day, Iraq's Shiite and Sunni groups reached the agreement in a signed document, or final communique under which " spilling Muslim blood is forbidden," at the end of their two-day Mecca meeting organized by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

According to media reports, the 10-point document, drafted by a group of four clerics from two communities under OIC auspices, calls for safeguarding of the two communities' holy places, defending the unity and territorial integrity of Iraq and the release of "all innocent detainees."

In details, the majority of the 10-point document edicts forbidding kidnappings, incitement of hatred, attacks on mosques and Shiite places of worship.

The gathering was seen as part of the Iraqi Reconciliation Conference. Since the Feb. 22 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra, some 120 km north of Baghdad, Iraq has been engulfed in tit-for-tat Shiite-Sunni violence that has reportedly killed thousands.

Source: Xinhua