Shiite and Kurdish delegates stormed out of an Iraqi reconciliation conference Saturday, infuriated by a speaker who branded them as U.S. sellouts, but they were persuaded to return after an apology. The walkout highlighted the sectarian and political divisions at the all-party gathering, which the Arab League called to prepare for a bigger meeting to be held later in Iraq. Hours after the conference began, an Iraqi Christian delegate, Ibrahim Menas al-Youssefi, took the podium and accused fellow delegates of being American stooges. He said the entire Iraqi political process was illegitimate and orchestrated by Washington.Shiite and Kurdish delegates left the closed session in disgust. "They are insulting the Iraqi people and they are insulting the constitution on which several million Iraqis have voted," Shiite legislator Jawad al-Maliki told reporters outside the chamber. "They want the situation in Iraq to go back to the way it used to be so that the mass graves can return."
Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kuba accused al-Youssefi of "supporting in one way or another" the insurgency in Iraq. "This is totally unacceptable," he told the pan-Arab satellite channel, Al-Arabiya.
Arab foreign ministers, particularly Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, promptly engaged the Shiite and Kurdish delegates and urged them to return to the chamber. Within the hour, Sunni delegate Mohammed Shehab al-Dulaimi told reporters the conference had resumed after the delegate apologized and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa ruled that al-Youssefi's comments would be struck from the record.