Peace deal offers Iraq insurgents an amnesty

The Times reports that The Iraqi Government will announce a sweeping peace plan as early as Sunday in a last-ditch effort to end the Sunni insurgency that has taken the country to the brink of civil war. The 28-point package for national reconciliation will offer Iraqi resistance groups inclusion in the political process and an amnesty for their prisoners if they renounce violence and lay down their arms. Diplomatic Editor Richard Beeston says that the plan to offer some of Iraq’s estimated 20,000 rebel fighters an amnesty and lure their commanders to the negotiating table is fraught with problems familiar to other states that have attempted similar dialogue.