Iraqi Kurdish opposition leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Massoud Barzani (left)

TEHRAN, December 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iran will not allow Iraqi opposition groups to attack Baghdad from Iranian soil and does not intend to attend a weekend London conference on regime change, a government spokesman said Wednesday, December 11.

“We will not let anyone use Iranian territory for military objectives against any of our neighbors,” Abdollah Ramezanzadeh told reporters.

Iran hosts the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), an Iraqi Shiite armed opposition grouping led by Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim which has an estimated 10-15,000 fighters, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Officially, Iran had stated the same position when asked to describe its support for Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance prior to the ousting of the Taliban, although it later emerged that Afghan anti-Taliban fighters had been given safe passage and arms on Iranian soil.

Ramezanzadeh also said Iran “will not participate in the London conference” of Iraqi opposition groups this weekend, even as an observer and even though Tehran has reportedly been invited to send representatives.

And the spokesman said Iran played no role in discussions here between visiting Iraqi opposition leaders - Kurdish chieftain Massound Barzani and Iraqi National Congress (INC) leader Ahmad Chalabi.

Barzani revealed late Tuesday, December 10, he had held a series of unprecedented meetings with Iran’s president, foreign minister, intelligence minister, powerful former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Revolutionary Guards commanders.

Officially, Iran is opposed to a U.S. attack on Iraq despite national loathing of its leader Saddam Hussein, and a number critics have accused officials here of failing to assert Iran’s interests over the issue.

Meanwhile, fractious Iraqi opposition leaders will search for common ground during a weekend London conference supposed to portray them as “credible” partners for Washington as it plans the ouster of President Saddam Hussein, AFP reported.

“This will be a political meeting, not a military operations room” plotting details of the regime's overthrow, said Washington-based former general Najib al-Salhi, one figure due to attend the conference along with major opposition groups and independent dissidents.

Delegates are to gather informally on Friday, December 13, ahead of Saturday-Sunday sessions in a London hotel. The outcome of their deliberations would be announced Monday, December 16, organizers said.

“Meeting to debate what post-Saddam Iraq should look like and speaking with a single voice is the right approach, and anyone who does so is bound to have a role in changing the regime,” Salhi told AFP.

“But you don’t discuss this (military input) in conferences.

“The Iraqi opposition is being belittled by its adversaries and by the Baghdad regime,” he added, brushing off the suggestion that Iraqi dissidents are resigned to the fact that only a U.S. assault can remove Saddam.

Iyad Allawi, head of the Iraqi National Accord Movement and one of the six organizers said: “You don’t expect us to topple the regime from London.

“It is the various forces of Iraqi society - military, tribal, etc. - that will do so, and many of the conference participants have links with these forces.”

What the 300-350 delegates will do is debate various ideas without inhibitions - including the Kurds’ cherished proposal for a federal Iraq - and “try to reach a modicum of agreement, a common denominator” on the future of their country, Allawi told AFP by telephone from London.

Fleshing out those proposals will be left to representative bodies once Iraq is rid of Saddam, he added.

According to Allawi, Iran and Turkey are two of Iraq’s neighbors who have taken up the invitation to send observers to London, in addition to Kuwait, the only Arab country to have indicated it will attend so far.

Iraq’s other Arab neighbors and Egypt have not said if they will come.

The White House said Monday that U.S. president George Bush had directed the Pentagon to provide up to 92 million dollars in military equipment and training to the six Iraqi groups organizing the London conference.

They are: the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Constitutional Monarchy Movement, in addition to the INC, SAIRI and National Accord Movement.

Accepting the aid would “(negatively) affect our reputation and that of the Iraqi opposition,” Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI)’s representative Hamed Al-Bayati said, adding “change in Iraq should be the work of the Iraqi people.”

The Bush administration, expected to send observers to the conference, pressed organizers to shelve differences that delayed the meeting and to unite as it turns up heat on Saddam.