Izzat Ibrahim met with Iraqi opposition members abroad

Iraqi opposition members who are in an unprecedented visit to Baghdad said yesterday that Iraq is preparing to adopt a new constitution that permits pluralism in the country and guarantees the freedom of the press.

The chairman of the Iraqi national alliance ( an opposition group in exile ) Abdul Jabbar al-Kubeisi stressed that the Iraqi Vice President Izzat Ibrahim who on Monday met with those opposition members told them that the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein appointed him on top of a committee in charge of drawing the new constitutions for the country. He added that "this new constitution will permit pluralism and guarantee public freedoms, including the freedom of the press." He explained that the new draft constitution will be submitted to the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein within one month before it will be brought before the Iraqi parliament for approval.

On November 8, al- Kubeisi and other five members in the Iraqi national alliance arrived in Baghdad after they had met in Europe with representatives of the Iraqi government. The Iraqi national alliance which was composed in 1990 calls for establishing democracy and pluralism in Iraq, but it does not call for toppling the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, as al-Kubeisi explained.