Plans for the day after

IRAQI opposition groups concluded their four-day conference in Salahuddin, in northern Iraq, last Sunday, by setting up a six-member interim council. The largely closed-door conference in the Kurdish- populated province of Arbil was held under the auspices of the US, which wants to unify opposition ranks in preparation for its plans to oust Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

In a clear rejection of plans in Washington to install an American military commander as interim ruler, the opposition concluded that the country should be administered by the Iraqi people themselves: "The Iraqi people should have the first and last word in deciding and running the affairs of their country," a four-page joint statement said.

US special envoy Zalmai Khalilzad, who arrived in northern Iraq amid heavy security ahead of the meeting, laboured to assuage opposition fears. "The US has no desire to govern Iraq," he said. "The Iraqi people should govern their own affairs as soon as possible. The coalition will not depart one minute before the job is done. It will not stay one minute more than it is needed."

The opposition statement says that the leadership council, along with 14 specialised committees, have been set up "in order to prepare for liberation, and to prevent the emergence of a political, administrative and security vacuum."

The leadership council is made up of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader Jalal Talabani; Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Massoud Barzani; Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim, of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (SCIRI); Ahmed Chalabi, of the Iraqi National Congress (INC); Ayad Allawi, secretary general of the Iraqi National Accord (INA); and former Iraqi Foreign Minister Adnan Pachachi. Pachachi and Allawi, who were elected in their absence, later distanced themselves from the proceedings.

Pictured, four present members of the interim council (from left: Barzani, Al-Hakim, Talabani and Chalabi) at the press conference at the meeting's conclusion.