The United States is to spend five million dollars to fund a meeting of Iraqi opposition figures that will look at how to govern the country once Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is removed from power, State Department officials said Tuesday.
"We expect this conference will bring Iraqi and other international experts together to discuss planning and activities that can take place now and steps needed after there is a new government in Baghdad," one official claimed.
The US State Department notified Congress late last week of the grant to the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based think-tank headed by Edward Walker, a former US assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, that will organize and run the meeting, the officials said, according to AFP.
A time and location for the meeting are not yet set, although the officials said it would not likely occur in the United States.
Meanwhile, a second official said The Hague, in the Netherlands, or another city in Europe were being looked at closely as venues for the meeting.
The money will be used to fund the conference as well as "follow-up projects" determined by working groups, the officials said.
"The working groups will continue their work after the conference itself is over," the first official said without providing further detail.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, an Iraqi opposition spokesman said the United States had been in contact with anti-Saddam groups about a "preparatory meeting" to be held in Washington next month prior to a broader conference in Europe.
Salah al-Shaikhly of the National Accord Movement told AFP by telephone from London that the State Department was looking at the first meeting to be held in Washington in the second week of April to prepare for the second one.
The State Department officials declined to comment on plans for an initial meeting. Sjaikhly said the second conference would be held toward the end of May or June and would be attended by the Iraqi National Congress (INC), the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the Shiite Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI), and a number of "independent" opposition figures.
That meeting would be of a "technical-political nature, with the technical side prevailing," as it would seek to draft a program of what should be done after Saddam Hussein is removed from office, he conveyed.
"The focus has shifted from 'who will replace Saddam' to 'what whoever replaces Saddam is going to do'," Shaikhly said, dismissing speculation that the proposed gathering will pick a post-Saddam interim leadership.
The US State Department officials confirmed his view of the meeting, saying it would focus on issues such as a post-Saddam justice system, public health and education, eliminating corruption, the role of the Iraqi military and rebuilding the economy.
In addition, it would also look at "returning Iraqi families who have been forced from their homes by the regimes' ethnic cleansing and tracking down the assets Saddam Hussein and his sons have stolen from the Iraqi people," the first official said.
"It is our hope that this conference will begin to show some of the expertise that exists among free Iraqis from a variety of backgrounds," the official said.
The decision to fund the conference comes as Washington steps up threats to take military action against Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein unless Baghdad readmits UN arms inspectors to verify that Iraq no longer has weapons of mass destruction.
Ibrahim
Iraqi Vice-President Izzat Ibrahim, who is currently in Beirut representing his country at the Arab summit, said Tuesday that nobody was capable of making any significant change in Iraq.
Addressing a dinner reception hosted in his honor by Aley Parliament Member Talal Arslan, Ibrahim said, “neither the United States nor any power on earth can change anything in Iraq,” adding that the Iraqis were more united than ever.
Several public officials, including Metn Parliament member Emile Lahoud junior, took part in the dinner, the Beirut Daily Star reported.
In a speech he delivered during the dinner, Arslan called upon Arab leaders to provide more support to Iraq and to the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
NATO
United States deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage briefed NATO ambassadors behind closed doors Tuesday with regards to Iraq's ability to develop and deploy weapons of mass destruction.
However, diplomats said he gave no specific indications as to whether Washington was closer to launching a military strike against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime.
"I had a discussion in the NAC (the North Atlantic Council) on Iraq and Iraq's weapons of mass destruction," Armitage told reporters after what he termed as a "classified" meeting.
"In general, it was a discussion of the activities of Iraq and Iraq regime to regain weapons of mass destruction in the absence of the inspectors for the last almost four years," he pointed out.
Armitage, who took part in a meeting in Bucharest of ten NATO applicant countries earlier this week, also said he briefed the transatlantic allies on US Vice President Dick Cheney's recent Middle East tour.
Asked if he had raised the possibility of a US-led military attack on Iraq, Armitage - who is second to US Secretary of State Colin Powell – replied, "We had no discussion of such a thing."
Meanwhile, speaking on condition of anonymity, a NATO diplomat said Armitage made "no revelations."
"He referred to a certain number of installations that could be used to conceal biological, chemical or ballistic weapons - notably vaccine factories that could have other uses," the diplomat said.
"He did not say that the United States envisaged an operation against Iraq, nor did he try to suggest that there would be a role for NATO... There was no impression that something is imminent." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
