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Iraqi Opposition Mulls Toppling Saddam, Supports
U.S. Intervention
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Sheikh Ali, left, a member of INC party, sits alongside Prince Hassan of Jordan at the meeting in London |
LONDON,
July 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Former Iraqi army
officers and opponents of Saddam Hussein gathered Friday in London to
mull how to topple the Iraqi leader, and gained a boost from the
unexpected appearance of Prince Hassan of Jordan, news agencies
reported.
Hassan,
uncle of Jordan's King Abdullah II, was cautious when asked about his
presence at the opening of the three-day meeting, held amid persistent
reports that Saddam's regime is Washington's next target in the
"war on terrorism," reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Asked
whether he favored the re-establishment of a monarchy in Iraq, Hassan
told reporters: "I have no agendas at all. I am not in position
to comment on questions about the future. The question is entirely the
choice of the Iraqi people. "I'm not giving any signals. I am not
a Jordanian government official."
The
meeting was organized by the Military Alliance of the Iraqi National
Coalition, which includes former officers in the Iraqi army and acts
as a network for communicating between soldiers in exile opposed to
Saddam's regime and those still inside Iraq.
Hassan
said he had received a private invitation to the gathering, where he
greeted his cousin Sharif Ali bin Hussein, an Iraqi opposition leader
and cousin of Iraq's former King Faisal II, assassinated in 1958.
Hussein is a leader of a movement for constitutional monarchy in Iraq.
Hassan
added: "I feel it is essential to talk about the present on the
basis of our shared roots.
"King
Faisal I was the founder of modern Iraq and also the founder of
pluralism in Iraq (and of) the respect for autonomous rights and
cultural differences of the Kurds, the Shiites and the Sunnis."
During
the three days of talks in London, to be attended by some 90 exiled
Iraqi officers "from all over the world" according to
organizers, opposition figures hope to put on a united front.
But
there is dispute over how representative the exiled opposition
factions are and how much support they could muster inside Iraq.
Friday's
meeting was taking place in Kensington town hall, in the heart of one
of London's most exclusive areas.
The
Iraqi National Coalition's Albert Yelda said all opposition movements,
large or small, had been invited to debate how to overthrow the
existing regime as well as Iraq's future and the role of the army in a
future Iraq without Saddam.
"There
are over 1,500 officers outside Iraq. All these officers are ready to
assume their moral responsibility," Yelda said, adding however
that their role was "to be an instrument for change, and not for
seizing power."
The
gathering comes amid speculation that Washington wants to invade Iraq
as its next target in the so-called war on terror, said AFP.
American
President George W. Bush pledged earlier this week to use "all
tools" at his disposal to remove Saddam.
U.S.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher described the London
meeting as "an important development" in planning for a
post-Saddam Iraq.
The
State Department did not financially sponsor the conference in the
British capital, but Boucher said personnel from the U.S. Embassy in
London would be attending.
Ahmed
Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) umbrella
opposition group who was invited to the meeting as an observer, said
Saddam was rejected overwhelmingly by ordinary Iraqis.
"He
is the world's most experienced and oldest terrorist" with a
stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Chalabi told Britain's
Channel 4 television.
He
said any imminent conflict would not be a war between the United
States and Iraq but a "war of national liberation for the Iraqi
people which the U.S. has decided finally to support."
"We
are in consultation with the U.S. government," he said. "We
expect to coordinate with them."
According
to BBC’s online news service, one of the officers getting the most
attention was a former tank commander in the Republican Guard,
Brigadier Najib-al Salihi, who defected in 1995 after Saddam Hussein's
secret police discovered a plot to mount a coup.
He
told BBC’s correspondent that the Iraqi Military Alliance, as the
grouping of military exiles is called, had supporters in the current
Iraqi army.
"They
are ready to support an intervention from outside and establish a new
democratic government", he said. "I hope that a clear
message will reach the Iraqi forces and people from this meeting to
clarify what is happening about preparations being made for changing
the regime.”
Sheikh
Mohammed Mohammed Ali, a Shiite Muslim cleric who left Iraq in 1980,
openly called for American intervention: "I hope that the United
States will support the Iraqi people to overthrow the regime", he
said,” reported BBC.
Sharif
Ali bin Al Hussein of the main exiled civilian opposition group the
Iraqi National Congress - and cousin of King Faisal - said:" We
do not want to replace one dictator with another", it said.
One
skeptical observer was Neil Patrick from the Economist Intelligence
Unit. He said that he had spotted diplomats from the United States and
Britain there briefly and described the meeting as "publicity for
the U.S. and U.K." as they begin to gather support for military
action, reported BBC.
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