Posted on 06/08/2002 2:00:36 PM PDT by knighthawk
WASHINGTON , June 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Senior U.S. officials met Friday with representatives of four Iraqi opposition groups to discuss their efforts to unseat Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, news agencies reported.
The representatives met with Marc Grossman, U.S. undersecretary for political affairs and other officials dealing with the Middle East , State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
He said the meeting was part of Washington 's commitment to work with as broad-based an opposition as possible.
"We continue to discuss the constructive role that they can play in advancing the goals of the Iraqi people," he said. The four groups are among those seeking to organize an opposition conference.
"We are going to have another meeting on Monday to discuss the details (of the conference)," said Hamed al-Bayati, London representative of the Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq , the main opposition faction.
But the idea is for the proposed conference to be organized and funded by the Iraqi opposition, not by the United States , al-Bayati told AFP by telephone from Washington .
The "group of four," as they have come to be known, also includes the National Accord Movement and the two main Kurdish groups sharing control of northern Iraq -- the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
But these talks exclude the controversial Iraqi National Congress, a so-called umbrella opposition group that has rocky relations with the U.S. State Department.
Washington has repeatedly stated its intention to see Saddam overthrown, but officials denied any concrete plans to act against him.
Bayati said a number of European countries had expressed readiness to host a proposed opposition conference, but added that it was premature to identify these countries or give a date for the meeting.
An Iraqi dissident, Ghassan al-Atiyyah, told AFP on Tuesday the group of four's effort follows the indefinite postponement of a U.S.-sponsored opposition conference, expected to be held in late June or early July, due to disputes within the U.S. administration over the role of the INC.
The conference will be replaced by meetings of "specialized working groups" in Europe in the summer, sponsored by both the U.S. State Department and NGOs, "in the hope that they will culminate in a political conference" in late summer, Atiyyah said.
"The Iraqi opposition, including the Kurds, wants to overthrow the dictatorship in Baghdad, even if this necessitates outside help, including the United States," an official from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two main Kurdish groups sharing control of northern Iraq told AFP Friday.
"We seek radical change which would bring about a democratic, peaceable regime that recognizes the Iraqi people's rights," Latif Rashid said, stressing that the PUK wants to safeguard " Iraq 's unity and territorial integrity."
Rashid, the PUK representative in London, said PUK chief Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the other main group controlling the Kurdish zone in northern Iraq, had discussed implementing a 1998 U.S.-brokered peace deal between their rival factions during a mid-April meeting in Germany.
But he flatly denied press reports that Talabani and Barzani had paid a "secret visit" to Washington last week during which they demanded control of the oil-rich northern Kirkuk region in return for supporting Saddam's overthrow.
Meanwhile, U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney said Thursday that Iraq must never be allowed to threaten the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction, reported BBC’s online news service.
Cheney called for a decisive response to counter a growing danger of “terrorist groups” acquiring weapons of mass destruction from sympathetic states.
"This gathering danger requires the most careful, deliberate and decisive response by America and our allies," Cheney said in a speech to the National Association of Homebuilders.
Cheney reiterated U.S. concerns over the possibility militant groups such as al Qaeda, blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, would "link up" with governments developing weapons of mass destruction.
"In the case of (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein we have a dictator who is clearly pursuing these deadly capabilities," Cheney said. "Saddam has also shown that he's willing to use weapons of mass destruction.
"A regime that hates America and everything we stand for must never be permitted to threaten America with weapons of mass destruction," he said.
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