A Preliminary committee for an opposition Iraqi conference in Lebanon

Iraqi opposition figures selected a preliminary committee during the conference which was held for three days in Beirut with the aim to draw a new political system based on rejecting the occupation and the stemmed Iraqi authorities as a result of this occupation.

More than 300 Iraqi figures representing various areas, sects and ethnic groups took part in the selection of the committee in preparation to form "the Iraqi national constituent council." The secretary of the preparatory conference Abdul Amir al-Rejabi explained in a press conference in conclusion of works of the conference that the preparatory committee "includes 60 members representing almost 6 million Iraqis of various effective social sectors from the south to the north."

The conference's final statement stressed the rejection of the participants of all "formulas of the American political process represented in the interim governing council and the current government." It stressed that Iraqi unanimous position to resist the American occupation but without giving mention to military resistance.

The conference opened its deliberations on Sunday at the Commodore hotel in Beirut in the presence of political figures, especially the Druz leader Walid Junblat.