Iraqi Opposition Prepares to Meet

LONDON -- A broad gathering of Iraqi groups opposed to Saddam Hussein is on track to take place this week after months of fits and starts, but the assembly will stop short of trying to form a government in exile, an opposition figure with royal lineage told journalists Monday.

Sharif Ali bin Hussein, a constitutional monarchist who aspires one day to reclaim the Iraqi throne once held by his cousin, said 300 to 350 delegates will gather to map out a general plan for Iraq’s future governance. He described the mood of Iraqis inside and outside the country as hopeful that this time, the United States is serious about ousting the leader whom he called a “tyrant and murderer.”

“We are the most optimistic we have ever been, and therefore we are preparing a future for the post-Saddam Iraq,” Bin Hussein said. The 46-year-old investment banker has not been to Iraq since 1958 -- the year his cousin King Faisal II was killed in a military coup that paved the way for Baath Party rule. Bin Hussein’s monarchist party is one of the smallest opposition factions.

The conference has been delayed in part by bickering among factions about the size of the assembly and the distribution of seats among the spectrum of opposition groups. But Bin Hussein dismissed as a falsehood the widespread perception that the Iraqi opposition is hopelessly divided.

“We are no more divided than many political parties in the United States or in the West,” he said at a news briefing. “What unites us is our determination to overthrow this regime and establish democracy in Iraq.”

As Bin Hussein described it, the meeting at a London hotel will map out general democratic principles for a post-Hussein Iraq and also form a committee of “free Iraqis” around which the country’s people could rally. That group could serve as the focal point for the international community in dealing with the Iraqi people. But calling it a government in exile would be impractical, he said, partly because Iraqis inside Iraq could not be included and partly because such a government would be hard-pressed to gain international recognition.

Bin Hussein’s comments came as three of the most powerful Iraqi opposition leaders met in Tehran, apparently to overcome last-minute hurdles to the conference.

The meeting involved Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, an umbrella group for small opposition parties that has support from the Pentagon and Capitol Hill; Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a mainly Shiite Muslim group with Iranian backing and a wide following in the south of Iraq; and Massoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of the two Kurdish factions that share power in the autonomous north of Iraq.

In London, Bin Hussein said the Iraqi opposition has already tried to help the United States by opening lines of communication with Iraqi army officers who would defect in the event of a U.S.-led military assault and by telling the Americans which specific units want to “join the revolution.”

“My impression is that units that do not resist and do not protect Saddam will not be attacked” by the U.S., he said.

If the Iraqi regime is toppled, Bin Hussein argued, there should be only a short-term U.S. or international administration before Iraqis are put back in charge. Like the free French or the free Dutch after the defeat of Germany in World War II, “free Iraqis” could take over managing the affairs of their liberated country in short order, he said. He rejected the notion that Iraq is a basket case in need of lengthy foreign administration.

“There is a centralized government that is working -- it just is carrying out insane policies,” he said. “The thing is to remove that leadership and put in one that is more representative of the Iraqi people.”

Bin Hussein also scolded European countries for not speaking out against Saddam Hussein’s rule.

“It really is the position in Europe right now that Saddam is a sovereign leader and he’s like anyone else -- and that is what we really feel disappointed about,” he said. “At the very least, come out and say that he is a mass murderer and needs to be arrested.”