The situation in Iraq remains tense after several days of sectarian violence stemming from the bombing of an important Shiite shrine last week. But a top Sunni leader said on Monday the group's leaders would be willing to return to talks on forming a national unity government with the Shiites and Kurds if Sunni mosques seized in reprisal attacks were returned. The Sunnis walked away from negotiations following reprisal attacks stemming from the destruction of the Golden Mosque in Samarra.

Adnan al-Dulaimi, whose Iraqi Accordance Front spearheaded the Sunni boycott, said they have not decided to return to the talks but are "intent on participating" in a new government. "The situation is tense and within the next two days, we expect the situation to improve and then we will have talks," he told the Associated Press. "We haven't ended our suspension completely but we are on the way to end it."

Religious and political officials from the various factions have all called for calm after hundreds have been killed in just a few days. On Monday, four people died in a Baghdad suburb in a mortar attack that wounded 16. The Sunni-Shiite clashes have brought into question whether the United States can begin withdrawing some of the 138,000 US soldiers in Iraq this year as Washington had hoped. A former British ambassador to Iraq predicted Sunday that ongoing internecine bloodshed would require the US-led military forces to stay much longer to ensure peace among rival ethnic and religious groups. "One could almost call it a low-level civil war already," Sir Jeremy Greenstock, who was Britain's envoy in Baghdad until 2004, told British television channel ITV1 according to the AP.

Throw in some healthy skepticism about Iran's deal with Russia to enrich uranium on Russian soil, which was announced over the weekend, and German commentators are equally pessimistic about the prospect for stability in the region.

The left-wing daily Berliner Zeitung paints a stark picture of Iraq's immediate future, writing regardless whether US troops stay or not there will be violence. "Should the United States truly leave the country in 2007, bloody chaos will rule. The same will happen if the United States stays," comments the paper. "Therefore there are no reasonable grounds for staying." This realization is slowly eating its way into the collective consciousness of Washington and the only reason why the US withdrawal won't come sooner is because the Americans don't want to lose face, opines the daily. "The attack on the Golden Mosque in Samarra has brought the country -- long on the brink of a civil war -- much closer to one. Nothing gives us the hope that someone inside or outside of Iraq could turn back this development."

The business newspaper Handelsblatt isn't quite so pessimistic, but still sees serious challenges for strife-torn Iraq. "As often as Iraq has been on the edge of civil war in the past years, one shouldn't underestimate the national integrity of the country," writes the paper. But too much time has already been wasted and when the rival factions fail to build a national unity government by themselves and on their own terms the consequences could be dire: "If the extremists manage to suspend seriously the political rejuvenation of the country then they have effectively won. Anarchy and civil war will be the result."  

The German press remains gloomy when looking at the other big issue causing worries in the Middle East: Iran's controversial nuclear program. News that Tehran and Moscow had agreed in principle to set up a joint uranium enrichment program is met with strong skepticism from the right-leaning daily Die Welt. "It was to be expected that the Iranians wouldn't categorically reject the Russian offer. For it is the last chance for Tehran to deal with the nuclear conflict in the context of the International Atomic Energy Agency and not the UN Security Council." The paper believes the Russian deal will give the mullahs the space they need to avoid sanctions while they ultimately plan to continue with their nuclear ambitions.