DESPITE US OPPOSITION, IRAQI OPPONENTS FORMED A LEADERSHIP COMMITTEE

SALAHEDDIN First of March (IPS)The Follow up and Coordination Committee (FCC) of the Iraqi opposition that is meeting in this Kurdish city formed Friday its first National Committee of the Leaders, something on the form of a future government for post-Saddam Iraq, informed Kurdish sources told Iran Press Service.

The FCC, which started its delayed meeting on Wednesday, appointed Jalal Talebani, Mas’ood Barzani, Hojjatoleslam Abdol’aziz Hakim, Ahmad Chalabi, Eyad Alawi and Erfan Pachachi, respectively leaders of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Democratic Party of Kurdistan, Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq, Iraqi National Congress, Iraqi National Union and the Sunni Arabs as members of the Leadership Committee.

The 65-members FCC was formed last December in London at the end of a conference that brought to the British Capital more than 350 Iraqis opposed to Saddam Hoseyn from all over the world.
However, only 53 out of the 65 FCC representatives are taking part in the Salaheddin meeting, which was delayed several times, due to security and visa problems..
Mr. Pachachi, a former Iraqi Foreign Affairs Minister, is not member of the FCC and Mr. Alawi was not present at the Salaheddin meeting, but was elected to the Leadership Committee on suggestion from Mr. Barzani, sources said.

The committee had to postpone its Friday session due to some differences among the members over the final statement, Mr. Hoshyar Zibari, the DPK’s representative for Europe told journalists, adding: "There are no differences among members of the committee, but they just could not reach agreement on how to formulate the final statement".

Other Kurdish sources explained that the difference comes from pressures from Mr. Zalmay Khalizad, President George W. Bush’s special envoy for Iraq on the opposition to act as an advisory board to the American Administration, while Committee members insist that the main aim of the meeting here was, and is, to form a national leadership committee.

"To formulate the content of the statement, the members of the committee are required to take into account all aspects of the matter due to the sensitive regional and international situations" Mr. Zibari said, referring indirectly to the pressures from the Afghan-born Khalilzad, who, according to our sources, has reiterated that Washington plans to name a military governor for Iraq for the next year or two after the fall of Saddam Hoseyn.

But on the other hand, Mr. Khalilzad, who is also in charge for Afghanistan and Iran, was pressed by the Iraqi leaders to urge Turkey not to enter the Iraqi Kurdistan once the United States attacks Iraq.

The Iraqis, but mostly the Kurds, are worried that Ankara might “use and abuse” from the occasion to enter the north of Iraq, on the pretext to stop the spill over of refugees into Turkey and to defend Iraqi Kurdistan from Iraqi invasion, but actually with an eye on Iraqi oil sources in this region, Kurdish sources said.

“We have told Mr. Khalilzad to tell bluntly to the Turkish government that in case they send their troops inside Iraqi Kurdistan, not only they will face our stiff resistance, but they could face a very, very long war inside Turkey”, one Kurdish journalist told IPS.

The meeting is also to set up 14 sub-committees, including for Foreign Affairs, Military and Security Affairs, Propaganda and Communication, Legal, Internal Affairs, Reconstruction and Refugees etc. to undertake the work of the Iraqi ministries in the transitional period. ENDS IRAQI OPPOSITION MEETING 1303