Google Alert Yemen Observer - The Head of Muslim Scholars in Iraq, Sheikh Harith al-Dhari, arrived in Sana’a this week, to meet with President Ali Abdullah Saleh to discuss the current turmoil in Iraq, and the suffering of the Iraqi people, as well as how to ameliorate the situation. According to diplomatic sources, who asked not to be named, the visit came as part of a Yemeni initiative to hold a conference to facilitate dialogue among all Iraqi factions to protect the national unity of the Iraqi people.

Last week, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu-Bakr al-Qirbi said that Yemen was negotiating with the Iraqi government and its rivals to convince them to attend a reconciliation conference in Yemen. It is expected that al-Dhari will attend a symposium which will be organized by a popular committee for supporting resistance on Tuesday. The symposium is entitled, “For a Democratic and Free Iraq.”

Al-Dhari will deliver a lecture on the situation in Iraq since US occupation began in 2003. Many politicians and representatives from non-governmental organizations and academicians are to take part in the symposium. Press sources, Speaker of Parliament Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar and Sheikh Abdul-Majeed al-Zindani, chairman of Iman University, are expected to meet with al-Dhari. Al-Dhari paid visits to several Arab countries to brief Arab officials on the current conditions in Iraq. He has notoriously rejected the American occupation of his country.