Failing to Form
"Provisional Government", Iraqi Opposition to Meet U.S.
Officials
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Iraqi opposition leader Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim |
LONDON,
July 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Exiled Iraqi opposition
members meeting in London Friday, July 26, abruptly cancelled an
expected announcement of plans for a "provisional
government" in their country, amid reports of splits in their
ranks. Hours later, the U.S. administration announced it would meet
with them to coordinate what it called “future of Iraq”.
A new government in Iraq is planned as an alternative to the regime of
President Saddam Hussein, according to press reports, with speculation
rife that the United States is planning military action against
Baghdad as the next target in its so-called "war on terror".
The
Bush administration invited key leaders of the Iraqi opposition to a
meeting next month with senior officials from the State and Defense
departments to end infighting between rival Iraqi opposition groups
and within the administration over the campaign to oust Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein, officials said Friday, reported The
Washington Post.
While
U.S. officials in various agencies met individually with Iraqi
opposition leaders, this is the first time so many figures in the
opposition movement would meet jointly with officials from State and
Defense. In recent months, the two departments sparred over which
factions in the Iraqi opposition are the most reliable allies and
which offer the best hope for a post-Hussein government.
"It
is different and more significant than past meetings," said Col.
David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman.
The
invitation, from Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman and
Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, was sent to Ahmed Chalabi of
the Iraqi National Congress, Sherif Ali Bin AlHussein of the
Constitutional Monarchy Movement, Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani of the Kurdish Democratic Party,
Ayad Allawi of the Iraqi National Accord and Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir
al-Hakim of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, an
Iran-based Shiite group.
The
meeting is expected to take place in Washington on Aug. 9, with Aug.
16 as the backup date, Lapan said.
Sources
within the Iraqi opposition and outside experts said the invitation
suggested the administration realized that the battle for influence
within the opposition and the administration was hampering plans to
overthrow the Iraqi government.
"The
administration needed to do this for a long time," said Danielle
Pletka, vice president for foreign and defense policy at the American
Enterprise Institute and an expert on the Iraqi opposition. The
different groups, she said, have constantly competed over who is the
"biggest stud" in Iraq, according to The Post.
"What
the administration has decided to do is get them in the same room, and
say, 'I don't want to hear anymore of this. Here's your sheet of
music, don't sing from anything else,' " Pletka said.
One
Iraqi opposition source, outlining expectations for the session, said:
"We're going to hear that the United States is dead serious about
getting rid of Saddam and you have a role, but you have to work
together."
However,
despite being buoyed by a pledge from U.S. President George W. Bush to
use "all tools" at his disposal to remove Saddam, opposition
factions appear divided, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Some among them argue that preparations for an alternative
administration are more likely to inflame internal political rivalries
than precipitate Saddam's downfall.
The Iraqi National Congress (INC), one of the principal opposition
groups in exile, was planning a press conference in London Friday, at
which it was due to "announce a plan for a provisional
government", a spokesman told AFP.
INC spokesman Faisal Qaragholi said that opposition figures were
holding talks about "a provisional government based on Iraqi
soil, in the north of Iraq".
As well as the INC, an umbrella group which brings together figures
aiming to topple Saddam, another opposition group - the Iraqi National
Movement - was to have participated in the meeting with journalists.
A spokesman for the second organization, Mudar Shawkat, was quoted in
Friday's pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat as saying the time was right to
prepare for setting up an Iraqi provisional government.
He added that "all" Iraqi opposition groups backed the idea
of forming such a government "but differ on the timing."
Minutes before Friday's conference was due to be held, the INC issued
a statement that the event was postponed "until further notice,
to enable further discussion among Iraqi opposition groups".
No date was given for a further press conference.
According to the British Guardian newspaper, a provisional government
would not be formally proclaimed "until the moment fighting
starts."
However, the British daily said there were fears the preparations for
a new administration were leading to squabbling among opposition
figures.
"It's a stupid thing," Saad Jabr, of the London-based Free
Iraqi Council, another opposition group, told the paper.
"It's too early, too premature. The guys who are not in it (the
provisional government) - they'll all be against it. If you announce a
government in exile, other groups can do it too."
Another London-based Iraqi dissident, Wafik al-Samarrai, a former
military intelligence chief, admitted in an interview with Qatar-based
Al-Jazeera channel that plans for the formation of a provisional
government were liable to highlight differences among Iraqi opposition
factions.
John Moberly, Britain's ambassador to Iraq from 1982 to 1985, told
AFP: "All Iraqi opposition is divided.
"There are two credible sources of opposition in Iraq: One is the
Kurds in the north. They are doing quite well now and I don't think
they are particularly keen on seeing an American army coming in.
"In the south, there are Shiites who have military support from
Iraqis in Iran and from Iran itself.
"If the Americans want to form a sort of opposition, it will have
to include these people. If you say that Iran is part of an 'axis of
evil', you're not going to get very far".
Meanwhile, there is also a dispute over how representative the exiled
opposition factions are and how much support they could muster inside
Iraq.
As
the main umbrella group for the Iraqi opposition, the INC was heavily
supported by U.S. taxpayers over the years, but ran into arguments
about its accounting practices.
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