McGuinness to head Iraqi peace summit

BELFAST, Northern Ireland, April 30 (UPI) -- Iraqi leaders emerged from a three-day meeting in Finland asking Irish Deputy Premier Martin McGuinness to lead an international peace mission to Iraq.

University of Massachusetts professor and diplomatic mediator Padraig O'Malley convened a delegation of Sunni and Shiite Iraqi leaders in Finland during the weekend to discuss political reconciliation in Iraq.

Iraqi leaders emerged from the meeting asking McGuinness, the former leader of the Irish Republican Army, and other senior figures to convene a peace mission this summer outside the confines of the U.S-backed system in Baghdad, The Belfast Telegraph said Wednesday.

"The fact they've signed up to important principles is an acknowledgment they have a duty and responsibility to peace," McGuinness said.

Jeffery Donaldson with the Northern Ireland Democratic Unionist Party played a role in the meeting as well, saying the delegation pursued a broad base of support.

"This is about building up a base to getting a wider dialogue going," he said. "We are using our experience to help them with a plan so it becomes an Iraqi operation."