Iraq Rebels Oppose U.S Strike to Topple Govt -Paper
Sat Jun 29,11:18 AM ET
CAIRO (Reuters) - A major Iraqi opposition organization said in remarks published on Saturday that Washington should seek to oust President Saddam Hussein ( news - web sites) through U.N. resolutions and not by military force.
Speculation has been mounting that Washington might be preparing an invasion of Iraq to oust President Saddam Hussein, whom it accuses of developing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. In an interview with al-Hayat pan-Arab newspaper, Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, (SCIRI), said he was concerned a possible U.S. attack on Iraq might result in the occupation of the Arab country. SCIRI is Iraq's largest Shi'ite Muslim dissident organization and claims to have up to 8,000 fighters operating inside Iraq. It has vowed to topple Saddam's Sunni Muslim-dominated government. "We are living a state of great worry...from the probability of an attack that would reach many of our people's sons and Iraq's basic infrastructure, as it would also lead to an invasion operation and occupation of Iraq," Hakim said. Hakim, a senior Shi'ite cleric, has lived in Iran with many of his fighters since the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. He also has followers among the 500,000 Iraqi refugees living in the Islamic republic. "We think the United States could only assist the Iraqi people by protecting them from operations of oppression practiced by the regime. When it (United States) puts pressure on it (the Iraqi authorities) to stop oppressive operations, then the Iraqi people could undertake an operation of change," Hakim added. His comments in al-Hayat seemed to indicate a shift in position from earlier remarks, which welcomed a U.S. military offensive to topple Saddam's rule. Hakim told al-Hayat that the best alternative to Saddam Hussein would be a parliamentary government that represented all Iraqi factions equally.
In December, Hakim told Reuters in an interview that SCIRI and other opponents of the Baghdad regime, including Iraqi Kurds, had agreed on forming a broad-based transitional government for one year. After that a government should be formed through a national referendum. Hakim also stated in the December interview that his organization would welcome attacks to topple Saddam as part of Washington's declared war on terrorism, as long as it did not threaten Iraqi independence. Many Arabs, already critical of Washington over its support for Israel in the Middle East crisis, have voiced opposition to any U.S. strikes on Iraq. The State Department said in early June that it planned to have a conference of Iraqi opposition groups during the summer and was organizing preparatory meetings. U.S. officials say the aim would be to talk about what Iraq should look like after the departure of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. President Bush ( news - web sites), who accuses Iraq of being a part of an "axis of evil" together with North Korea ( news - web sites) and Iran, has openly declared his desire to remove Saddam by military force if necessary, but has offered few details of how he plans to accomplish that.
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