Albright Meets With Iraqi Opposition

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright helped a delegation of Iraqi opposition leaders kick off a week of U.N. lobbying Monday, urging other countries to “join us in listening to these brave, free voices of Iraq.”

Most of the 16 Iraqis who huddled with Albright are members of the U.S.-backed Iraqi National Congress based in London. They were joined by Kurdish leaders from the autonomous region of northern Iraq. There were no delegates from parts of the country under the direct control of President Saddam Hussein’s government.

“The most important thing for any captive people is to have a voice,” Albright said in a written statement issued after the hourlong meeting.

In talking to Albright and other U.S. officials, the Iraqis were preaching to the choir. They face a more daunting prospect in trying to line up meetings with other U.N. delegations.

U.S. officials insisted that the delegation meeting with Albright was far broader than the London-based congress. But 13 of the people who met with Albright are affiliated with the group. A senior State Department official said some independents are expected to join the delegation later in the week.

The meeting with Albright took place as the U.N. General Assembly opened its annual debate.

The U.N. Security Council is considering a resolution sponsored by the Netherlands and Britain that is intended to revive the U.N. inspections of possible Iraqi nuclear, chemical, biological and missile programs. Iraq expelled the inspectors last year, touching off a bombing campaign by the United States and Britain.

Under the Dutch-British proposal, U.N. economic sanctions would be eased or eliminated entirely if the inspectors were able to certify Iraq to be free of weapons of mass destruction. However, some Security Council members--including veto-wielding Russia and China--want to lift the sanctions without a return of the inspectors. Any attempt to rewrite the resolution to do that would draw a U.S. veto.

“We are not considering any suspension of the sanctions in advance of Iraqi compliance,” a senior State Department official said. He conceded that the Security Council appears headed for a deadlock that would perpetuate the status quo in which Iraq can do what it pleases in its weapons programs but will remain burdened by economic sanctions.

Riyadh al Yawer, a spokesman for the Iraqis who met with Albright, said his group supports steps that would ease the hardships of the Iraqi people. But he said Hussein’s government--not the U.N.--is responsible for Iraqi suffering.