The US and the Iraqi opposition
Iraq-USA, Politics, 6/12/2002

The US Department of State has expressed its desire to maintain dialogue with the largest strata possible of the Iraqi opposition groups in order to change the Iraqi regime.

The Spokesman for the State Department Richard Boucher said that changing the regime in Baghdad has been always part of US policy.

He indicated that Washington continued work in order to organize a large conference for the Iraqi opposition during the summer in a time and place which are not set yet and is working to organize preparatory work meetings within the efforts for including vaster possible opposition groups.

In this context, the US official at the Middle East department at the US Department of State Deputy Assistant Secretary Ryan Crocker received on Monday several representatives for these groups, who were received earlier by the US under secretary of state in charge of political affairs MarcÊGrossman.

Observers indicate that the Iraqi opposition met with Crocker on Monday in Washington on three shifts. A matter which reveals internal split. The first meeting included a representative for the Kurdistan democratic party, the Kurdistani national federation and the higher council of the Islamic revolution in Iraq which works from Iran especially the national reconciliation movement.

The second meeting included the leadership of the Iraqi national conference while the third meeting included another formation which is the Iraqi national movement.

An anonymous source at the US state department said that an American team visited London a short time earlier in order to become acquainted with the accounts of the Iraqi national conference.

Meantime, here is an excerpt from the June 10 State Department briefing containing State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher's comments on meetings with Iraqi opposition groups:

(begin excerpt)

QUESTION: Iraqi opposition leaders here for the past several days. I understand there have been meetings with State Department officials.

Do you have any comment?

MR. BOUCHER: Yes, we have. We've had a number of meetings with members of the Iraqi opposition. Senior officials in the Department and the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau have been meeting with representatives of the Iraqi opposition, including the Iraqi National Congress, the Kurdish Democratic Party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the Iraqi National Accord, and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

I think we discussed Under Secretary Grossman's meetings on Friday, and Deputy Assistant Secretary Ryan Crocker is having other meetings today. These meetings are part of our effort to reach out to as broad a group of Iraqi opposition as is possible. We continue to discuss with various groups the constructive roles that they can play in advancing the goals of the Iraqi people.

QUESTION: While we're on the subject, we heard, I think from you, that your plans to hold a conference in Europe were postponed.

MR. BOUCHER: No, you didn't hear that from me.

QUESTION: Well, okay, people in this building said that. Because you hadn't managed to get the $5 million from Congress. Could you -- I have seen reports that there will be a meeting of Iraqi experts in Europe at some stage. Can you explain what's going on on that front? On the conference front?

MR. BOUCHER: Yes. The plan is still to try to have a meeting of Iraqi opposition groups as wide as possible during the course of the summer.

We're looking to organize a series of smaller meetings that would lead up to a larger conference. And that's where the focus is right now.

QUESTION: Sorry, so you're --

MR. BOUCHER: I don't have any particular schedule of those meetings yet, but that's the plan and that's how we're --

QUESTION: These are what some people were calling "working groups"? These are working group meetings?

MR. BOUCHER: Yes, workshops, working groups, smaller meetings, stuff like that. One name or the other. I'm not sure of the final appellation.

QUESTION: And you don't have a timetable, even for the working groups?

MR. BOUCHER: No, I don't have a timetable for this, but that's the goal now, is to organize a series of smaller meetings leading up to a conference this summer.

QUESTION: Did you require a special appropriation, or are you -- for the working groups, for funding the working groups? Or is that something you could do from existing funds?

MR. BOUCHER: I'm not sure. I'll have to check. I think we can do it from existing funds.

QUESTION: Richard, can you just maybe help put in perspective what all this activity, the meetings this week and the meetings that you're -- the workshops and the meeting coming up in Europe -- I mean, can you sort of put that together? What's the aim of all this?

MR. BOUCHER: I think the aim of all this, first of all, is to look to all the different Iraqi opposition groups to try to see what everybody can do in terms of mobilizing against Saddam Hussein, but also looking to the future of Iraq after Saddam Hussein. As you know, the subjects that we thought should be addressed at the conferences, or the workshops and conference over the summer, is post-Saddam Iraq, and how these people could help organize Iraq in the future once Saddam is gone.

So this is part of an effort, I think, just to keep the momentum going, to help the opposition groups organize themselves and work together as much as possible in achieving those ends.

QUESTION: Well, if I can just follow up, the fact that the State Department is planning in detail this idea of a post-Saddam administration, how does that square with other statements from the State Department about how there are no plans yet for invading Iraq? Now, I understand -- I'm not asking you to sort of say that that's -- not to talk about the military side of it, but does that give the impression to observers in Europe or other places that the administration is actually looking for toppling the Saddam regime?

MR. BOUCHER: Well, regime change has always been our policy.

QUESTION: Right.

MR. BOUCHER: And if the policy is regime change, then it's not too big a leap to say somebody ought to be thinking about what happens after the regime changes. So that's what we're doing.

QUESTION: I was just wondering about the Iraqi opposition meetings on Friday. Was it -- did they all meet together? Was it each group separately? Could you tell us about what --

MR. BOUCHER: Some of the groups come together; some of them we do separately. So it's a variety of different meetings and different formats.

QUESTION: Specifically, was the group of four together when they met with Ambassador Grossman?

MR. BOUCHER: That's my understanding, yes.

QUESTION: I have a couple of Libya questions. Do you have --

MR. BOUCHER: One more on Iraq?

QUESTION: It seems to me that Congress has shown a preference over the years for the Iraqi National Congress, but you're talking about reaching out to all of these groups. And it seems to some that the Iraqi National Congress is getting short shrift, compared with what -- at least what the Congress has in mind. Could you comment on that?

MR. BOUCHER: I would say there are a variety of ways of addressing this. First, I think everybody does agree we need to meet with the broadest range of groups as possible. But second of all, the Iraqi National Congress is a very important group. We work very closely with them. We've just offered them another $8 million worth of funding. We hope they take us up on that offer. We continue to fund their television operations, their newspaper operations, their headquarters, a variety of other things that we funded in the past.

So I guess if you look where the money goes, the Iraqi National Congress still gets the bulk of the funding that we put into the Iraqi opposition.

QUESTION: Richard, I think the INC would say that they are an umbrella group. They have Kurds, they have royalists, they have Shia, they have Sunni. And by you saying that you're broadening and trying to get as many opposition groups as possible, you're sort of undermining the mission of this umbrella organization that was created to do just that.

MR. BOUCHER: There is -- I think first of all, if they want to say that, let them say that. I don't want to try to get into some kind of debate between -- with you. The Iraqi National Congress is a significant member of the opposition community, but that they're not the only opposition group. They play a very useful role, along with other groups. There is a strong vibrant community of Iraqi opposition groups, all united in opposition to the Saddam Hussein regime, and in support of principles such as democratic Iraq, an Iraq that's not a threat to its neighbors, an Iraq that respects the rights of its citizens.

These groups include the Iraqi National Accord, the Iraqi National Movement, the Constitutional Monarchy Movement, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the Iraqi National Congress of course, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, the Iraqi National Front, the Islamic Action Movement, a variety of Turkomen and Assyrian groups and others.

So we're trying to stay in touch with all the groups, and not all these groups are subsumed under the umbrella.

QUESTION: Richard, you said you've offered them $8 million. Do you know whether that -- whether you have now reached final agreement on the terms of that $8 million? Because my understanding early last week was that negotiations were not yet concluded.

MR. BOUCHER: No, we have not yet reached final agreement. We had a team out in London last week to discuss the proposal with the Iraqi National Congress, and we're now awaiting their formal response to this offer.

QUESTION: And that means that Liberty TV is not yet functioning; is that not right?

MR. BOUCHER: You have to check with them. We've given them money for their operations, 2.4 million for the expenses they incurred in April and May of this year. And as I said, we've notified Congress of our willingness to provide another 8 million, and that's on offer to the Iraqi National Congress at this moment.

QUESTION: Have the problems with their bookkeeping been resolved?

MR. BOUCHER: The requirements of accountability for funds, that's an ongoing requirement. That's something that we need to do with every contract in terms of the ongoing operations. There is a team from our Inspector General's Office that's now in London to follow up on the 2001 audit report. So we'll look forward to that report as well on the use of funds by the Iraqi National Congress.

QUESTION: Are there NGOs working for Iraq that the United States support?

MR. BOUCHER: NGOs working?

QUESTION: Yes, the other opposition groups.

MR. BOUCHER: There are -- I think most of these groups that I listed would be classified as NGOs, as you go forward. But there are also other groups that we funded. I think INDICT in the UK is one of the ones that's often cited. They collect information on war crimes. So there are NGO groups, more traditional NGO groups, that we fund as well.

Previous Stories:
  Rumsfeld address Iraq issue upon his arrival in Kuwait   (6/11/2002)
  Rumsfeld leaves Kuwait for Bahrain; accuses Iraq   (6/11/2002)
  Iraqi opposition groups discuss in Washington means of toppling the president   (6/10/2002)

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