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Al-Ahram Weekly 15 - 21 April 1999 Issue No. 425 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 15 - 21 April 1999 Issue No. 425
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Washington upbeat
The US statement came after a meeting of representatives of several Iraqi opposition groups in Windsor in Britain. The talks ended on Thursday with a declaration saying that the groups agreed to set up a new leadership in their bid to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
about Iraqi oppositionWashington's reaction was one of high expectations. "The unity that was missing is now there," said US Senator Bob Kerry who attended the two-day discussions along with other American officials. "I was impressed by their ability to subordinate their personal interests for their common cause," said Kerry, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a co-sponsor of the Iraq Liberation Act.
Frank Ricciardone, the US special representative who coordinates with the opposition groups, attended the meetings and vowed that the United States would work with the dissidents to "ensure that change in Iraq will achieve the goals of peace, freedom and democracy."
Clearly the two American officials were trying to paint an optimistic picture: questions still remain as to whether Washington is this time serious in its talk about toppling the Iraqi regime and whether Hussein's opponents have at last been able to unite in order to achieve the same goal.
The main outcome of the Windsor meetings was an agreement to maintain the Iraqi National Congress (INC) -- an umbrella organisation of Kurdish, Shi'ite and leftist factions formed in 1992 to topple Hussein.
The groups also agreed on a new seven-member leadership council that would replace Chief Executive Ahmed Al-Chalabi in running the day to day affairs of the organisation. The new body will also be given the task of persuading those groups which have deserted the INC to return to the fold.
"We will have the task of diligently rebuilding the Congress as a unified and efficient organisation which will remove Saddam from power," Mohamed Abdel-Jabbar, one of the new leaders, told Al-Ahram Weekly in a telephone interview from London.
He said the discussions in Windsor, which he described as "frank and serious", focused on shortcomings in previous efforts by the opposition to overthrow Hussein which he attributed in part to half-hearted support from Washington.
He said the groups had agreed to a meeting of the Iraqi National Assembly, the opposition parliament in exile, in the next two months to forge the opposition's overall strategy and prepare for the post-Hussein era.
Under the deal the new leadership would include representatives of the two main Kurdish groups which control northern Iraq, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Other groups include the Iraqi National Accord, a faction formed mainly of former Iraqi government and ruling party officials as well as several small groups representing religious and ethnic minorities.
However, two of the main opposition groups, the Iranian-backed Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the Iraqi Communist Party did not take part in the recent discussions, arguing that a US-led rebellion would not be the best way to bring about the overthrow of Hussein.
Will the new attempt at unity bear fruit? There are doubts in some circles as to whether the US can strengthen the divided opposition and propel them to success.
The US has pledged to help Hussein's opponents bring about a change of government in Iraq. After the four-day US-British bombing campaign against Iraq last December, US President Bill Clinton endorsed the Iraq Liberation Act which provides for $97 million in military aid for Iraqi opposition groups.
However the history of US involvement with these groups is littered with examples of failure. Many of the problems stem from the legacy of bickering, in-fighting, ethnic and ideological differences and, worse, interference by host countries in the internal affairs of the opposition groups.
For example, analysts point out that the two Kurdish movements in northern Iraq have so far failed to end their feud and implement the US-brokered peace deal under which they agreed to establish a local government for the Kurdish region. Washington hopes that such a government would act as a springboard for an uprising to overthrow Hussein.
Even more worrying to the other opposition groups is the fact that the KDP maintains ties with Baghdad, which raises doubts as to whether it would participate in efforts to oust the regime. Its leader, Masoud Barzani, has repeatedly said that his group would not take part in any plot against Hussein.
To maintain any positive momentum coming from the Windsor meetings, the United States must prove that its latest move to reinvigorate the Iraqi National Congress is genuine and not self-serving. In other words, its efforts should not be perceived as having arisen from domestic political considerations or having been engineered in order to exploit the Iraqi issue in the next presidential election campaign.
In Iraq, meanwhile, the government made no comment on the meeting although newspapers ridiculed the opposition leaders who participated in the discussions, saying they were spies for the US and British intelligence services.
"The meeting of despicable traitors, conspirators... and spies who receive orders from American and British intelligence has failed completely and was futile," the government newspaper Al-Jumhouriya said.
"Neither the American or British media machine nor the millions of dollars allocated from the American budget would enable these puppets to implement their [hidden] agenda against Iraq," the paper commented.
