Iraq's interim President Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar said in an interview published Monday that the government would within "a couple of days" offer an amnesty to insurgents who had fought US-led forces but were ready to lay down their arms.
"We are offering an amnesty definitely, for people who have not committed too many atrocious acts; everybody except murderers, rapists, and kidnappers," Yawar said in an interview with Britain's Financial Times newspaper.
Yawar, speaking to the FT on Sunday, said the government was trying to separate "the bad elements from the good" in Fallujah, a centre of Sunni opposition, "without shedding any innocent blood."
Yawar said the government would welcome Moqtada Sadr, the occupation's leading Shia opponent, into the fold, as long as he relinquished arms and sent a lawyer to answer questions in connection with the killing of Abdul Majid al-Khoei.
Washington had earlier said Sadr, accused of inciting the murder of the moderate Iraqi cleric and two companions last year, should attend in person.
Yawar said the matter could be handled "in a way that preserves his dignity".
Meanwhile, he said that the Iraqi government welcomed military support from countries such as Egypt, Morocco and Yemen, but not from neighbours like Jordan, who had offered its assistance last week.
"It shouldn't be from a direct neighbour," he said. "There will be a conflict of interests."
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