Posted on 02/20/2003 1:00:20 PM PST by Shermy
By BORZOU DARAGAHI, Associated Press Writer
IRBIL, Iraq - A long-planned meeting of Iraqi opposition leaders in northern Iraq has been delayed "three or four days" because of complications caused by weather, a Kurdish opposition leader said Wednesday.
Hoshyar Zebari, foreign relations chief of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, said many opposition figures based in Washington have been unable to travel because of a snowstorm that shut down the region's airports. Snow in Iran also impeded travelers.
"The opposition leadership is determined to make this happen," Zebari told reporters at a news conference. "It looks like now it will happen in three or four days."
The meeting is expected to bring together delegates elected during a London opposition conference in December to map out a framework for a future Iraqi government if Saddam Hussein is overthrown. It has been delayed several times.
The goal of the meeting is "to speak with one voice to the outside world," Zebari said.
Fawzi Hariri, a Kurdistan Democratic Party spokesman, said they were trying to attain a quorum of at least 40 of the 65 member steering committee elected in London.
Representatives of the United States, Turkey, Britain and France are planning to attend. Russia also has expressed an interest in attending, as have several Arab countries.
Also Wednesday, a group that represents ethnic Turks in northern Iraq said they would file a formal complaint with the United Nations charging that their security chief was illegally arrested over allegations he intended to disrupt the opposition meeting.
Abdul Amer Izzat Abdulla, 36, the security chief of the Iraq Turkoman Front, was stopped and arrested by armed members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party on Feb. 11.
The front, a small opposition group claiming northern Iraq for Turkey, said Abdulla has not been heard from since his arrest. The party has prepared a draft letter they plan to present to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, said Sanan Ahmet Aga, president of the party.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party, which rules the western half of the autonomous Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, alleges Abdulla was part of a Saddam-backed plot to sabotage the meeting.
IRBIL, Iraq (AP) - A long-planned and oft-delayed meeting of Iraqi opposition groups may, at last, begin this weekend amid rising anger over U.S. plans to set up a military government in Baghdad once Saddam Hussein's regime is toppled.
That's good though,get's our guys out of that s^&thole that much sooner.
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