Saturday’s Regional Conference in Baghdad has begun – With a BANG

The Saturday Regional Conference in Baghdad has begun...

"We call for peaceful dialogue to settle disputes, including the international,
regional, inter-regional issues," Maliki told delegates to a regional conference
in Baghdad, including deputy foreign ministers and other officials from Iran,
Syria and the United States... In his speech, Maliki also demanded to see a
"unified regional and international stand in support of the Iraqi people ...
with no distinction along sectarian... The one-day conference brings together
mid-level officials from Iraq's neighbors, the permanent U.N. Security Council
members -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France -- and Arab
countries. There will be 16 delegations in all...

Read this story in full at TheStar.com
...
dnaindia.com has this story out that goes in part like this...

As mortar blasts and sporadic gunfire echoed around Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki launched talks with envoys from Middle Eastern states and from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council... The embattled premier demanded that Iraq not be made a battlefield for a proxy war between regional powers -- an implicit reference to the rivalry between Shiite Iran and Iraq's Sunni Arab neighbors...

Read the rest at link below...
Iraq urges Middle East powers to unite against terror