Iraqi opposition differences threaten their meeting

The chairman of the Iranian Shoura council Mahdi Karoubi stressed after his meeting with the chairman of the Kurdistani National Federation Jalal al-Talibani yesterday in Tehran that "Iran is for a united and strong Iraq of an authority representing all groups and ethnic affiliations of this country."

Since Monday evening, Talibani has been visiting Tehran to meet with high ranking Iranian officials including President Muhammad Hashami, at a time when a meeting for the coordination and follow up committee for the Iraqi opposition forces is to be held on January 15 in Arbeil.

However, the official at the Higher Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Mohsin Hakim, announced yesterday in a statement to the Iranian daily Intikhab that the conference will be held at Salah Eddine city in northern Iraq without setting a date for convening it "due to security reasons." Sources of the opposition Kurdish groups in London said yesterday that it is likely to postpone the meeting as a result of differences over the date and venue of convening it among the main groups.

Talibani who met yesterday with the chairman of the Higher Council Muhammad Baqer al-Hakim stressed that the topics scheduled at the agenda of the conference are "forming several committees especially executive and diplomatic ones." The committee which was formed at London's plenary conference for the Iraqi opposition in December 2002, includes 75 members.

Worthy mentioning that Talibani is visiting Iran for the second time within less than two months. He, together with the chairman of the Kurdistani Democratic Party, Masoud al-Barazani, and the leading figure in the Iraqi National Congress, Ahmad al-Jalabi, visited Iran at the beginning of December, 2002 at the invitation from al-Hakim during the London's conference.