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Iraqi Opposition Groups Meet U.S. Officials To Unseat Saddam
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“A
regime that hates America must never be permitted to threaten
America with weapons of mass destruction.”
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WASHINGTON
, June 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Senior
U.S.
officials met Friday with representatives of four Iraqi opposition
groups to discuss their efforts to unseat Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein,
news agencies reported.
The
representatives met with Marc Grossman,
U.S.
undersecretary for political affairs and other officials dealing with
the
Middle East
, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) reported.
He
said the meeting was part of
Washington
's commitment to work with as broad-based an opposition as possible.
"We
continue to discuss the constructive role that they can play in
advancing the goals of the Iraqi people," he said. The four
groups are among those seeking to organize an opposition conference.
"We
are going to have another meeting on Monday to discuss the details (of
the conference)," said Hamed al-Bayati,
London
representative of the Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution in
Iraq
, the main opposition faction.
But
the idea is for the proposed conference to be organized and funded by
the Iraqi opposition, not by the
United States
, al-Bayati told AFP by telephone from
Washington
.
The
"group of four," as they have come to be known, also
includes the National Accord Movement and the two main Kurdish groups
sharing control of northern
Iraq
-- the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan.
But
these talks exclude the controversial Iraqi National Congress, a
so-called umbrella opposition group that has rocky relations with the
U.S. State Department.
Washington
has repeatedly stated its intention to see Saddam overthrown, but
officials denied any concrete plans to act against him.
Bayati said a number of European countries had expressed readiness to
host a proposed opposition conference, but added that it was premature
to identify these countries or give a date for the meeting.
An
Iraqi dissident, Ghassan al-Atiyyah, told AFP on Tuesday the group of
four's effort follows the indefinite postponement of a U.S.-sponsored
opposition conference, expected to be held in late June or early July,
due to disputes within the U.S. administration over the role of the
INC.
The
conference will be replaced by meetings of "specialized working
groups" in Europe in the summer, sponsored by both the U.S. State
Department and NGOs, "in the hope that they will culminate in a
political conference" in late summer, Atiyyah said.
"The
Iraqi opposition, including the Kurds, wants to overthrow the
dictatorship in Baghdad, even if this necessitates outside help,
including the United States," an official from the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two main Kurdish groups sharing
control of northern Iraq told AFP Friday.
"We
seek radical change which would bring about a democratic, peaceable
regime that recognizes the Iraqi people's rights," Latif Rashid
said, stressing that the PUK wants to safeguard "
Iraq
's unity and territorial integrity."
Rashid,
the PUK representative in London, said PUK chief Jalal Talabani and
Massoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the
other main group controlling the Kurdish zone in northern Iraq, had
discussed implementing a 1998 U.S.-brokered peace deal between their
rival factions during a mid-April meeting in Germany.
But
he flatly denied press reports that Talabani and Barzani had paid a
"secret visit" to
Washington
last week during which they demanded control of the oil-rich northern
Kirkuk
region in return for supporting Saddam's overthrow.
Meanwhile,
U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney said Thursday that Iraq must never be
allowed to threaten the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction,
reported BBC’s online news service.
Cheney
called for a decisive response to counter a growing danger of
“terrorist groups” acquiring weapons of mass destruction from
sympathetic states.
"This
gathering danger requires the most careful, deliberate and decisive
response by America and our allies," Cheney said in a speech to
the National Association of Homebuilders.
Cheney
reiterated U.S. concerns over the possibility militant groups such as
al Qaeda, blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, would
"link up" with governments developing weapons of mass
destruction.
"In
the case of (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein we have a dictator who is
clearly pursuing these deadly capabilities," Cheney said.
"Saddam has also shown that he's willing to use weapons of mass
destruction.
"A
regime that hates America and everything we stand for must never be
permitted to threaten America with weapons of mass destruction,"
he said.
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