Preparations for the meeting of Iraqi conference in Washington fail
US officials refused to comment on news reported by circles in the Iraqi opposition on difficulties facing the chairman of the executive council of the opposition Iraqi National Conference, Ahmad al-Jalabi, and his thinking to submit his resignation during a meeting for the council under preparation in London.
The said conference will be held in London next week and is expected to be attended by US diplomat Frank Ricciardone, who is in charge of coordinating with the Iraqi opposition.
Officials at the US State Department told the London based al-Hayat daily, of the failure of efforts in preparation for the meeting of the national society of the Iraqi National Conference that al-Jalabi called for convening in Washington by the end of April.
One of those US officials at the US State Department said that the "Iraqi national conference holds its meeting at its own initiative and we have no comments on what is taking place inside it." He added that a meeting will be held in London next week, and will be attended by Ricciardone.
A source in the Iraqi opposition said that the meeting of the national society has been postponed due to pressures by certain members of the executive council who informed the US coordinator that the meeting is illegal because it "does not represent members of the society, and that executive council was not consulted about such a meeting."
It has been rumored that al-Jalabi expressed his readiness to resign from the presidency of the executive council at a time when several factions of the Iraqi opposition no longer view the "conference" as the umbrella organization under which the Iraqi opposition organizations are rallied.
Among the council's members who are residing London are Eyad Allawi, the Secretary general of the national reconciliation movement; Latif Rashid, the representative of the Kurdistani National Federation; Aziz Alayyanm, the representative of the Iraqi Democratic Party; Sami Azzara al-Majoun, the representative of the Iraqi National Reform Movement; Amer Abdullah, a former leading figure in the Iraqi communist party; and Hamid al-Bayati, the representative of the Islamic Revolution Higher Council" in Iraq.