.Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-B'erhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
USfallsout
with Iraqi
, ,
Post-war America
to run country as ,
squabbling parties
fail to agree strategy
'T'
Julian Borger in Washington, MiçhaeJ ,-'; ,
HoWard and Luke Harding in Irbil,
Dan De LuceiriTehran
e Bush administration is on a '
collision course with its closest :
allies in the Iraqi opposition
over how the country should be
run after the fall of Saddam
Hussein, compounding the confusion
now surrounding Washington's preparations
for war.
Guardian interviews with four of the
seven leading opposition figures have revealed
the depth of the rift between Washington
and several of the main parties
claiming to' represent the Iraqi people. '
, :The split has overshadowed a much-de- ,
layed meeting in Irbil, northern Iraq, now
slated for this weekend, which will bring
together opposition leaders who have
spent much of the past decade at loggerheads.
It is hoped that the meeting will
fOrge unity between the disparate groups.
, ~ut their temporary reconciliation has
CÔmetoo late for the United States, which
has given up hope of unifying the Iraqi exiles,
and opted to run the country itself in
the aftermath of the war.
The Bush administration told opposition
leaders at a meeting in Ankara earlier
this month that it plans to install a
transitional military governor and keep'
much of the existing Iraqi bureaucracyin
place. The proposals have opened such a
deep gulfbetween the US and its traditional
allies in the Iraqi opposition - particularly
the Iraqi National Council
headed by Ahmad Chalabi - that a leading
INC member has even raised the possibility
of a revolt against the American
occupationtroopsafterthewarisoveL
. The rift has also added to the uncertainty
dogging US war plans, alreadyon
hold in the absence of an agreement from,
Turkey to provide bases for a northern
frd'Dt, and in the face of determined op~
position in the UN security council. '
Mr Chalabi is seeking to declare a provisional
government when the war starts.
The Chalabi plan, which has been seen by
the Guardian, envisages the establishment
of a leadership council, drawn from
the 65 members of a 'steering committee
appointed at an opposition conference in
London in December.
At the onset of a US invasion, this new
body would become "a leadership council
of the transitional government ofIraq~
which would oversee the preparation of a
temporary constitution and assign an executive
committee head to create the first
post-Saddam cabinet. The plan lists the
various ministries that would be created:
but fails to tackle the thorny issue of repreSentation
for the country's different eth-
opposition
nic and religious groups.
The plan has alienated some ofMr Cha-
.1abi's most enthusiastic backers in the
Pentagon and in Congress, who fear the
announcenient of a provisional government
made up of exiles would split anti-
Saddam sentiment inside Iraq.
"People in this administration tried very
hard to put the [INC-Ied] opposition into
power:' said Leith Kubba, a founder member
oithe INC who is now non-affiliated.
,"But after a total investment of $100m,
they are saying look at the money spent
and ask what do we have to work with? Is
there a coherent front? The answer is no." '
Zalmay Khalilzad, the White House
, "special envoy and ambassador-at-Iarge
for free Iraqis~ only agreed to attend this
weekend's rebel congress after its Kurdish
hosts guaranteed there would be no declaration
of a provisional government. "The
Americans are coming:' Hoshyar Zebari,
of the Kurdistan Democratic party (KDP),
said, suggesting a deal has been done.
The Kurds were ambivalent over the
INC's plan, seeing the provisional government
as a vehicle for Mr Chalabi's ambitions.
"The trouble is it's all about Ahmad
[Chalabi]:' said one Kurdish official.
"Who else do you think he has in mind for
the head of the executive committee. He
knows that ifhe enters Baghdad without
this kind of deal, he'll not have the leverage
he craves. There will be so many other
exiled Iraqi technocrats returning that
he'lljustbe one of the crowd:'
Mr Khalilzad's arrival in Irbil has been
postponed several times, apparently due
to bad weather in Washington, but if and
when he finally turns up he is likely to be
given a l!ool reception. The INC is furious
with him. The'Kurds are anxious over reports
that the'US has promised Turkey
that its troops will have free run in north-
, ern Iraq once the war starts.
And all sides suspect him of trying to
, undermine ~heir clout by perSuading
other oPPosition leaders, including Ayad
Alawi of the Iraqi National Accord, and
Sharif Ali, the most prominent monarchist,
not to attend.
The Guardian has learned that Mr
Khalilzad is tryingto arrange a rival meeting
with 15 Iraqi opposition figures and
exiles. Mr Chalabi has,so far not been invited,
but the meeting is expected to include
independents like Adnan Pachachi,
an 80-year-old former Iraqi foreign minister
now living in Abu Dhabi.
Mr Khalilzad has recently been court-,
ing Mr Pachachi as a possible elder statesman
to add legitimacy to the "advisory
council" the US is hoping to set up as a
complement to the post-war military administration.
The day-to-day government
would be left in the hands of the existing
bureaucracy, made up oflow-level Ba'ath
party members.
The meeting in Irbil at least appears to
have cemented the truce between the two
rival Kurdish groups, the KDP and the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which
spent half the past decade at war with
each other. Both have repeated their commitment
not to attempt to secede, but to
respect the integrity of a federal Iraq.
Jalal Talabani, the PUK leader, pledged
his party would playa role in a post-war
central government, telling The Guardian
"I think it is the duty of Kurds to play an
important role in Baghdad for reshaping
Iraq into a democratic, pluralist system."
The main Shi'ite movement, the
Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution'
in Iraq (SCIRI) has forged a temporary alliance
with the PUK, and is attending the .
Irbil meeting but the Kurdish-Shi'ite axis
is tenuous overthe issue offederalism.
Mohamed Bakr al-Hakim, the SCIRI
leader, said he is not prepared to accept a'
federal post-war Iraq. "Kurds want this
kind' of configuration but this matter
should be left to Iraqis," he said.
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