-Caveat Lector-
>>>West Tejas isn't known just for the oil of the Permian Basin. they gots
lots of cotton there, too. Recall that the "axis of evil" ("live fo sixa", to
some) includes the NoKors, the Iraqis and the Iranis. Don't forget that the
Iran-Iraq War was fueled by the Iranis aiding the Kurds ("Deja vu, deja vu")
which, in turn, resulted in a few thousand Iran-backed Kurds being lost on
the battlefield. The people in this part of the world are extremely tribal;
the mountains and the rivers form more meaningful boundaries than do the
English map lines. Hussein's son-in-law (the lame-brained defector who
ratted out on dad-in-law then went back to Iraq?) was killed by the tribes
for having dishonoured them. Now, the West Tejano weevils gonna get in
the middle of all this? Ha! And then there's Chalabi, on the lam.
A<:>E<:>R <<<
January 26, 2003
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/26/international/middleeast/26IRAN.html
?ex=1044546023&ei=1&en=83fe662a5591f920
Iraqi Dissidents Meet in Iran to Plan Iraq Entry
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
EHRAN, Jan. 25 — More than a dozen exiled Iraqi opposition leaders have
quietly gathered in Iran to prepare their entry into northern Iraq, in a sign
of Iran's increasing involvement in planning for its neighbor's future.
Iran's welcome of the opposition leaders, who came at the invitation of a
senior Iraqi opposition cleric here, was coupled with an official offer of
protection into Iraq, the opposition leaders said. They plan to hold
meetings there in an area under Kurdish control and out of reach of the
government in Baghdad, to designate a small group that will eventually
decide on the shape of a government if Saddam Hussein is ousted.
"We are struggling to determine whether or not an Iraqi leadership that
can claim legitimacy can emerge," Kenan Makiya, an author and a Brandeis
University professor who is part of the delegation, said in an interview.
Mr. Makiya, who was one of three Iraqi opposition leaders to meet
President Bush at the White House this month, added: "The Iranians are
actually offering to protect us so we can hold our meetings in northern
Iraq. Would you believe that?"
Plans for the opposition to meet inside Iraq were drawn up at a meeting of
more than 300 Iraqi opposition figures representing six main groups in
London last month. There, the deeply divided groups called for a
democratic and parliamentary federal government to replace Mr. Hussein,
and they appointed a 65-member committee to continue planning.
Mr. Makiya said his group planned to enter Iraq in the next few days but
had rejected the offer of Iranian protection.
The visit by the Iraqi opposition leaders and Iran's involvement illustrate
the volatility of politics in a region where the United States, even if it
intervenes directly in Iraq, is unlikely to be able to fully control
developments.
Iran's official position is that it opposes American military intervention in
Iraq and that it must be left to the Iraqi people to decide their fate. But
Iran has given protection and material support to Ayatollah Muhammad
Bakr al-Hakim, the Iraqi cleric whose goal is the overthrow of Mr. Hussein.
Today, the influential head of Iran's Supreme Council for National Security,
Hassan Rowhani, said of a potential war in Iraq, "If the U.S. goal is to disarm
Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, we accept it if it is done under U.N.
leadership."
He added, however, that weapons inspectors must be given time to disarm
Iraq, and charged that the real American goal "is the domination of the
region and Iraqi oil."
"Iraq has a 1,300 kilometer common border with us," Mr. Rowhani said. "An
outbreak of a new war only one year after a war in our other neighboring
country, Afghanistan, is unbearable."
He added, "Military action is unjustifiable, and we should make all efforts
to avert a war."
The Bush administration recently told Iraqi opposition leaders that it
opposed creating a government in exile because a huge swath of the Iraqi
people would feel excluded after Mr. Hussein was ousted.
The administration also told the group that the planned opposition
conference in Kurdish-held northern Iraq in February could provoke
retaliation against the Kurds by Mr. Hussein or even cause war. One
member of the Iraqi delegation now in Iran said that the group might use
this visit only to meet with the two main Kurdish leadersand to prepare for
a gathering of the entire 65-member committee inside Iraq.
An American official said that Iran has become increasingly helpful to the
opposition. The official said the administration was generally pleased that
Iran would provide such support, calling it a "positive trend." However, he
cautioned that there continue to be deep divisions within the Iranian
government over whether to support the overthrow of Saddam Hussein —
divisions that cut across both the religious conservative and reformer
camps.
The official also said that the administration would prefer that the
opposition conference not take place now in northern Iraq, in large part
because of concerns about security.
The presence of the Iraqi group in Iran has not been acknowledged by the
Iranian government or reported by news organizations, even those not
under government control.
But the opposition leaders said they received an exceptionally warm
welcome at the airport when they arrived on Wednesday.
The delegation, which is led by Ahmad Chalabi, the head of the umbrella
opposition group known as the Iraqi National Congress, includes Gen. Wafiq
Sumarahi, the former chief of Iraqi military intelligence who defected in
1994; Latif Rashid, a representative of one of the two Kurdish opposition
groups; and Mudhar Shawkat, leader of the Iraqi National Movement, an
organization of mainly Sunni Arabs that works closely with the State
Department.
The group is meeting with Iranian officials in various power centers, but
not with officials in either the office of the reformist president,
Mohammad Khatami, or the Foreign Ministry, Mr. Makiya said.
Neither of those offices seems deeply involved in the plan, he said.
"We've had very important meetings here and increased support shown
here for us," Mr. Makiya said of Iranian officials, declining to identify his
interlocutors by name. But, he added, "We're not involved with the
Khatami group. They have absolutely no say over Iraqi affairs."
Mr. Khatami met with Ayatollah Hakim last week, but both Mr. Khatami and
Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi are on an official visit to India. In New Delhi
today, Mr. Khatami said, "I hope the present situation would be solved
without any war in a peaceful way."
If Mr. Khatami and the Foreign Ministry have been excluded from planning
with the Iraqi opposition, it would underscore the extent to which power
is divided in Iran. The group would need the protection of the
Revolutionary Guards and the Intelligence Ministry to cross the rugged
mountains of the northern Kurdish area from Iran into Iraq.
Neither the presidential spokesman, Abdullah Ramezanzadeh, nor the
Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid-Reza Assefi, returned phone calls
seeking comment.
On Friday evening, the Iraqi group met with Ayatollah Hakim over dinner at
his office. The ayatollah, a Shiite who leads an organization called the
Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, has abandoned his goal of
creating an Iranian-style Islamic Republic in Iraq. He has instead moved
closer to Iraqi groups, allowing his followers to cooperate with both Shiites
and Sunnis, and even with the United States.
The ayatollah has his own army, some of it in Iraq, but estimates of the
number of troops vary from 12,000 to 40,000. Diplomats say Iran's
Revolutionary Guards, controlled directly by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's
spiritual leader and the most powerful person in the country, train
Ayatollah Hakim's troops in Iran.
The meeting in Iraq to decide the shape of a post-Hussein government
initially was supposed to take place on Jan. 15, but it has been delayed,
Mr. Makiya said, because of opposition by the Bush administration.
"I don't want a new page opened in Iraq that starts as an American
occupation," he said.
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the authority of teachers, elders or wise men. Believe only after
careful observation and analysis, when you find that it agrees with
reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all.
Then accept it and live up to it." The Buddha on Belief,
from the Kalama Sut
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