Al-Sharif Ali and al-Jalabi: the attack is easy and coming

The chairman of the opposition Iraqi constitutional royal movement, al-Sharif Ali Bin al-Hussein, has announced in a statement to the German Deseit daily issued on Wednesday that he expects an American intervention in Iraq ( before the end of the current year), despite the fact that Baghdad permitted the return back of UN inspectors.

Al-Sharif Ali added that the "crisis will be escalated in, at most in February 2003," noting that "we expect the Americans to launch the attack according to the way they are preparing and their speeches, before the end of the current year." Al-Sharif Ali, one of the cousins of the King of Iraq Faisal II who was toppled in 1958 said that the Iraqi opposition will return back to Baghdad in the next six months, Insha'llah." He continued " our political class has been matured in exile and no one, being a Republican, a Muslim, a nationalist, or a Kurd will permit the establishment of a dictatorship."

Meantime, the chairman of the Iraqi national conference Ahmad al-Jalabi, for his part, told the same paper that the "Iraqi army will not defend Saddam Hussein." He added "I can not define the size of the American forces which should take part in the operation but there is a need for less than the hundreds of thousands they talked about." He indicated he does not seek an official post.