Iraqi army officer to confer in London
Iraq, Politics, 7/4/2002

Iraqi opposition members said on Wednesday that some 70 former army officer in the Iraqi army opposing the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will be meeting in London as from July 12 in order to discuss the possibility of toppling Hussein and to discuss the role played by the army in establishing democracy in Iraq.

One of the leaders of the opposition Iraqi National Congress Ahmad Jalabi said that London's meeting is a separate move by the army officers without being financed by the US or by the Iraqi National Congress which is also financed by the US.

Jalabi added that these army officers aimed for the meeting to have taken place in a meeting for the Iraqi National Congress but the meeting was postponed and they decided to proceed forward in their plans because they believe that it is a potential matter that the army officers will establish a networking with their colleagues in Iraq to tell them there "is life aftermath Saddam Hussein era."

Meantime, a source at the opposition national congress indicated that most of the former army officers have connections with the congress, which is an umbrella including several Iraqi opposition groups. It is, however, expected that London's meeting will approve the political program for the national congress.

The conference is scheduled to last for three days. It is the first among other meetings proposed for the Iraqi opposition throughout 2001 during heated discussions for the administration of the US President George Bush on means of toppling the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

Among the main organizers of the London's meeting is the Lt. Gen. Tawfiq Yasiri, who, by his own army units, took part in the Shiite rebellion which erupted against Saddam in southern Iraq following the Gulf war in 1991 and then he fled to the west through Saudi Arabia.

Also taking part in London's meeting is Saadi Obeidi. He was the chairman for the morale affairs department in the Iraqi army and has a doctorate in psychological medicine.

An official at the US Department of State said he knows about the forthcoming London meeting but he does not know whether the Bush administration will delegate representatives to attend it.

However, a source at the Iraqi National Congress expected the participation of representatives for the US defense department ( the Pentagon) and the American embassy in London.

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