200 IRAQI SHI’A DISCUSS IN TEHRAN SITUATION IN POST-SADDAM

TEHRAN 6th of March (IPS)

As the United States is accelerating war preparations, Iran increased its efforts to intervene more heavily in the unfolding situation, by presenting new ideas aimed at saving the Iraqi dictator in the one hand, while preparing the grounds for a better presence in the post-Saddam era, by organizing a conference of Iraqi Shi’ites, on the other.

The conference that is bringing for the first time in decades more than 200 Iraqi Sh’ites is organised in the Iranian Capital by the “Preliminary Committee” of Iraqi Shi’ites opposed to Saddam Hoseyn and his brutal ruling Ba’s Party.

Representatives form other Iraqi opponents, including Kurds and Sunnis, are also taking part at the meeting as observers.

 But while Hojjatoleslam Mohsen Hakim, a spokesman for the Tehran-based Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Republic of Iraq (SAIRI) expressed “satisfaction” with the results “obtained so far” from the discussions, Mr. Javad al-Malaki, a member of the political bureau of the Islamic Call Party said he expected that the "unifying of ranks" conference will not succeed.

He justified such a failure to several factors, mainly fears of provoking sectarianism among the Sunni and the difficulty to maintain links among its "affiliations, which the US represents one of its sides, while Iran represents the other", he observed.

For his part, Mr. Hakim said the aim of the meeting is to “study” the situation of Iraqi Shi’ites in the post-Saddam era and refuted as “baseless” accusations that the Iraqi Shi’ites were after creating a Shi’ite state similar to that of Iran or present “exorbitant demands” from the next Iraqi government.

The SAIRI, which control an army estimated at between 30.000 to 50.000, trained and armed by Iran and concentrated in the Iranian oil-rich province of Khoozestan, near the Iraqi borders, has recently established bases in part the Iraqi Kurdistan controlled by the PUK, which is led by Mr. Jalal Talebani.

Observers said such a move could not have been operated without the explicit authorisation from the Iranian ruling clerics and logistics offered by the Iranian army to transfer units of the SAIRI from south of Iran to the north.

At the same time, Iran also presented Tuesday a plan calling for organising elections supervised by the United Nations, aimed at “reconciling” Mr. Hoseyn with all his opponents.

The plan, which was immediately rejected by all main anti-Saddam Iraqi forces, including the SAIRI, was also dismissed by the ongoing meeting of Jeddah-based, 56-nations Organisation of the Islamic Conference, which is held in Doha, Qatar, the current Chair country of the Organisation, and ridiculed by Iran’s Defence Minister Admiral Ali Shamkhani.

“As Saddam is being drowned, we tell him: Please, Have a coke”, the Minister told journalists who, at a press conference on Wednesday, where asking his opinion of the project, offered by Mr. Kamal Kharrazi, the Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister.

 At a conference held last week in Salaheddin (the original name of Arbil), in the Iraqi part of Kurdistan controlled by the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (DPK), 57 out of 67 members of the Follow up and Coordinating Committee (FCC) formed a six members governing committee with the task to lead Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hoseyn.

Along the leaders of the two main Kurdish organisations, the DPK and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, those from the Shi’a and the Sunnis, as well as secularist Iraqi National Congress and an independent figure are members of this governing body.

“What the (Iraqi) Shi’a are after is a true democratic regime that represents all ethnics, religious and forces that make the fabric of the Iraqi society, including the Shi’a, that represents 70 per cent of the Iraqi population, but also the Kurds, the Sunnis, the Assyrians etc.”, he told the Persian service of the BBC.

In a press statement, al-Maliki said that persons invited to the conference are Shiite Iraqi figures representing the moderate and secular trends with the aim of maintaining an agreement among themselves while giving assurances to the Sunni in Iraq that "we do not have the intention to get dragged to a sectarian conflict" and that the "Shiite do not hold the Sunni responsible for what happened in Iraq, rather to the political regime which takes the Sunni sect as a pretext for making blocks and damaging the Shiite".

Though the Shi’ates make the majority in Iraq, but the Ba’s has held them out of the government for decades, considering them as “too close” to rival and neighbour Iran, where the Shi’ates, Muslim’s largest minority, are in majority and are in power. ENDS IRAQI SHI’A CONFERENCE 6303