Iraqi opposition says it is difficult to run Iraq without it
Iraq, Politics, 2/28/2003

The Iraqi opposition conference yesterday continued its work in the Salah eddine town in Irbil province to north Iraq.

The leader of the Kurdistani National Federation Jalal al-Talibani has considered that it will be easy for Washington to topple the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein but it will be difficult to run the country without the support of the opposition leaders.

Jalal al-Talibani indicated promises made by Washington that the Iraqis will have self-rule, in the context of his defense of the role played by the opposition. He added in a speech before the meeting that ruling Iraq needs full cooperation with the Iraqi opposition forces and the representatives of the Iraqi people in order to achieve democratic rule in Iraq.

In the second day of the meting, al-Talibani said that Washington needs Saddam's opposition groups more than its need for the opposition groups of the Taliban, so it can proceed forward in the plans to change the government and dismantle Iraq from the mass destruction weapons, in remark to the Northern Afghanistan coalition in the American war against Afghanistan.

He completely ruled out that the Kurds of Iraq will give up their weapons. He said that Turkey and Iraq's other neighbors should fear nothing in the Kurdish "pocket."

On the other hand, Zalmai Khalil, the envoy of the US administration said that Washington has no intention to rule Iraq.

The leader of the Kurdistani democratic party Masoud al-Barazani warned against any intervention in the internal affairs of Iraq, calling on the Iraqi opposition groups to maintain inter- unity.

However, the participants in the meeting discussed the decisions of the December 2002 London meeting of the Iraqi opposition, the conditions in Iraq, besides discussing the foundation of a mini leadership council and agreeing on a work strategy, called by the opposition as "After Saddam's phase."

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