The New York Times January 28, 2003 Iraqi Opponent Says He's Leaving Iran to Plan Takeover By ELAINE SCIOLINO
TEHRAN, Jan. 27 Ahmad Chalabi, an Iraqi opposition leader, announced today that he intends to travel to Iraq shortly to meet other opposition leaders and plan a provisional government to replace the regime of Saddam Hussein. Mr. Chalabi, who heads the Iraqi National Congress, the main Iraqi umbrella opposition group, told a news conference here that he was going into Iraq despite objections from some members of the Bush administration but with the blessing of the White House. The setting of Mr. Chalabi's message was almost as striking as the substance. It was conveyed at his organization's headquarters in a private villa in a gated community in an affluent neighborhood of Tehran. Despite American economic sanctions against Iran, the villa, which is decorated with expensive Persian carpets and brocade-covered sofas and armchairs and staffed by about a dozen Iraqi aides and security people, is paid for by the State Department, Mr. Chalabi said in an interview. A special Treasury Department exemption under the Office of Foreign Assets Control was required to allow American funds to finance his operation, he added. [In Washington, the State Department confirmed his statement about obtaining government funds for political activity in Tehran.] "We hope to go to our country in northern Iraqi Kurdistan to have consultations with the leaders over there," Mr. Chalabi said. "And we expect we can come up with a coalition leadership council, which will be empowered to establish a coalition provisional government at the appropriate moment so that the government will lead the process of liberation and would also assume control of the administration of Iraq." Mr. Chalabi, wearing a suit and tie in a country where ties are still suspect for being too Western, seemed to revel in his surroundings. He welcomed a reporter to his headquarters and said the villa had been "paid for by the State Department." Mr. Chalabi's comfort in inviting journalists to his American- financed headquarters in Iran and announcing plans to cross into Iraq underscored how confident he feels about the support of his Iranian hosts. He and about 15 aides have been in Teheran for several days. Although their presence has not been officially acknowledged, they said they had been meeting with senior officials in agencies like the Revolutionary Guards and the security and intelligence apparatus who report directly to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's spiritual leader and the most powerful man in the country. Iranian officials have promised to help them enter Iraq illegally, they said. One senior Iranian official played down the Iraqi opposition's activities in the country, saying in an interview: "They are just passing through. They happen to have friends here." The "friends" are Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr al-Hakim, the Iraqi cleric who was the official host of the visit. The ayatollah heads an Islamic opposition movement and militia that has been given a headquarters, protection, money, weapons and training by Iran since the early days of its revolution nearly 25 years ago. In the interview, Mr. Chalabi acknowledged that the ayatollah, a Shiite Muslim who once favored the installation of an Iranian-style Islamic republic in Iraq, had been fiercely opposed to working with the United States to topple Mr. Hussein. In recent months he has forged an alliance of convenience with Washington, although he opposes American military occupation of Iraq. Mr. Chalabi lavished praise on Iran in the news conference, calling discussions with Iranian authorities "useful and fruitful" and disclosing that Iran has quietly allowed him and his group safe passage through their territory into Iraq since the mid-1990's. "As the hour of liberty approaches, they will support our efforts," he said. Mr. Chalabi also acknowledged that not all members of the Bush administration were in favor of the creation of a provisional government inside Iraq. He also said he was "sorry to say" that some Arab states friendly to Washington "prefer the option of a United States military government in Iraq to a provisional government led by the Iraqi opposition." He did not name the countries. But he also said he believed that resistance within the Bush administration to his intentions could be overcome because "President Bush has decided to confront Saddam Hussein." Mr. Chalabi also said that Zalmay Khalilzad, the White House envoy to the Iraqi opposition movement, even said that he would travel to northern Iraq to join a meeting of a committee of 65 opposition leaders chosen at a conference last month in London. "Khalilzad knew all about it, and he has encouraged me and said he favored my travel plans," Mr. Chalabi said in the interview. There are still logistical, security and visa issues that must be resolved before all 65 Iraq opposition committee leaders can come together in northern Iraq for the meeting, which is now tentatively scheduled for the second half of February. Despite a policy of "active neutrality" in the crisis with Iraq, Iran has launched a strategy of conducting business as usual with Mr. Hussein's regime while also dealing with Iraqi opposition leaders. Even Iran's officially declared position is ambiguous. It opposes an American-led war against Iraq on the grounds that it will cause regional instability, kill innocent civilians and create a refugee crisis on its 730-mile border with Iraq. But Iran also insists that Baghdad must comply fully with the United Nations weapons inspectors. What the consequences will be if it fails to do so, Iranian officials do not say. It would be hard to find even one Iranian with a good word to say about Mr. Hussein, the man who invaded their country in 1980 and later used chemical weapons to kill Iranian soldiers in the first use of chemical weapons on the battlefield since World War I. Until Iran made peace with Iraq after eight years of war, the official policy of the Iranian government was Mr. Hussein's ouster. Now the stated policy is that the fate of the Iraqi government must be determined inside the country. "We stress that any change in Iraq should be made by the Iraqi people," said Abdullah Ramezanzadeh, the presidential spokesman, in an interview. But personally, Mr. Ramezanzadeh, an Iranian Kurd and a former soldier whose brother was wounded in a chemical weapons attack, said he feels differently. "I have fought as a soldier against Iraq, and many of my friends who were fighting at my side died before my eyes," he said. "So I cannot have a positive opinion about Saddam." The current war fever has shaken Iran's uneasy coexistence with Iraq, which has prevailed since the end of the Iran-Iraq war. Earlier this month parliament summoned Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi to explain why his Iraqi counterpart, Naji Sabri, was planning an unexpected visit to Iran. Mr. Kharrazi replied that Iran wants to help prevent a war against Iraq by the United States "through diplomatic initiatives" and was pressing Iraq "to comply with U.N. resolutions."
