Al-Jalabi: toppling Saddam will be possible within weeks

The chairman of the Iraqi National Congress, which takes London as headquarters and introduces itself as the main alliance for the Iraqi opposition, Ahmad al-Jalabi said that toppling the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein will be very easy because no body will fight for him in Iraq.

In an interview given to the French paper "La Croix" issued on Wednesday, al-Jalabi stressed that "if the US decided to topple Saddam this will be very easy because no body will fight for him in Iraq." Al-Jalabi added "If preparation will be good, this case will be just a matter of weeks. For our side, we need 11 weeks of training to get ready."

Al-Jalabi is a Shiite whose family escaped to Lebanon after the collapse of monarchy in Iraq in 1958, he is now living moving between London and Washington. He also welcomed the resumption of financial aids given by the US State Department for his group, but he expressed his regret because "the US administration so far did not agree to give military training to us in the area of using weapons." He added " we hope to get them."

He said that the US administration has agreed to help the Iraqi National Congress to organize a conference for former Iraqi officers in March in Washington. He added that his movement hopes to organize "a political conference later." He concluded that the interests of the US and Iraq will be in their best if the Iraqis themselves are moving at the support of the US. He indicated that "the most important is to get rid off Saddam Hussein and if the US decides to do this by its own, there will be no problem in that."