RIYADH, Oct 19: Al Qaeda in Iraq has denounced Arab League plans to stage a reconciliation conference between all Iraq’s factions, accusing the pan-Arab body of serving US interests.

A statement posted on Tuesday on a website known for hosting fighters’ material said the ‘Arab League initiative is a new conspiracy to save their American master under the pretext of national reconciliation, maintaining Iraq’s unity and protecting the Sunnis against falling under Iranian influence’.

The Arab League plans to hold a reconciliation conference at its Cairo headquarters but a date has not been set. League Secretary-General Amr Moussa is expected to travel to Iraq on Thursday, his first visit since Saddam Hussein’s ouster, to try to organize it.

The Al Qaeda statement, which could not be authenticated, said Moussa was going to Iraq to ‘convince the Sunnis to enter the political game with the Shia ... in exchange for stopping the tide of jihad in the Sunni areas’.

“The Crusaders have found themselves drowned in a bottomless swamp ... they have found no better allies than the old Arab agents and their League,” it added.

The US has welcomed the Arab League initiative.