Iraqi opposition meeting set for mid-December
From Andrea Koppel
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A major conference of Iraqi opposition groups is set to take place December 13-14 in London, England, capping months of efforts to bring the groups together, the State Department said Wednesday.
The opposition groups to meet include at least six Iraqi exile organizations -- among them, the Iraqi National Congress, two Kurdish groups, an Iranian-based Shiite Muslim group, a monarchist party and a group of exiled Iraqi army officers.
The Bush administration expects the session, the largest meeting of Iraqi exile groups since 1998, will also include organizations representing Turkish, Christian and Assyrian minorities.
The goal of the conference is a statement of principles from "as broad-based" and "as wide a variety" as possible of opposition groups, a State Department official said.
According to officials, some principles the United States wants emphasized include: a consensus on removing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power; establishing a democracy in Iraq; safeguarding the rights of minorities; the need to address war crimes; and the country's formal rejection of all weapons of mass destruction.
The on-again, off-again conference was planned for this fall, but infighting among various opposition members prompted its repeated postponement.
The planned session began taking shape Tuesday when members of Iraqi oppositions groups met with Zalmay Khalilzad, President Bush's special envoy for Afghanistan. Marc Grossman, undersecretary of the State Department, also attended.
At that meeting, opposition leaders "bought onto our vision of a multi-ethnic Iraq," one State Department official said.
Officials said there also was agreement on the size of the conference so that it would include a wide array of Iraqi opposition members.
"We know that the people we've talked to are committed to a conference that's as large as practical, and one that takes place as soon as possible," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.
The proposed meeting represents a breakthrough in planning for Iraq's future. The Bush administration was so frustrated and embarrassed by the infighting among the opposition groups that it dispatched senior State and Defense Department officials in November and again this month to sort through the differences.
