Posted on 12/08/2002 7:43:37 AM PST by knighthawk
Massoud Barezani, the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in northern Iraq, was due to arrive here Saturday night to discuss Iraq's future with Iranian officials as well as heads of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), an informed source here said.
The visit takes place right on the heels of Barezani's recent visit to Kuwait where he met with the head of SCRIRI, Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim. The two stressed on the ouster of Saddam Hussein and election of a new leader accepted by all Iraqi groups.
Political pundits have not ruled out rival Kurdish leader and the head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Jalal Talebani's visit to Iran in the forthcoming days.
The two leaders are expected to participate at a December 13-15 meeting in London where 300 delegates of the six Iraqi opposition groups will convene to hammer out a power-sharing government to replace Saddam Hussein.
The meeting comes amid U.S. threats to oust Saddam if it fails to come clean on its nuclear arms programs. Washington has also indicated that it may hand over the governorship of Iraq to an American general after the ouster.
Iraqi opposition groups, however, have expressed their opposition to any U.S. interference in the country's future. Both Talebani and Barezani stressed in Brussels last month that they would not participate in any U.S.-led military action against Iraq.
The two have said that they wanted to be part of a future Iraqi government and have a say in it. The Kurdish leaders met with EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana in Brussels in November as well as French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris, IRNA reported.
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