POLITICS-IRAQ: Alternative to Saddam Takes Shape in London

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Dec 9 2002 (IPS) - A cousin of the assassinated former King Faisal II will lead a conference of Iraqi opposition representatives in London this weekend to prepare for an alternative leadership to Saddam Hussein.

"Our aim is regime change," Sharif Ali bin al Hussein, now leader of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) told media representatives at a packed news conference Monday afternoon. "Nothing less will do."

Sharif Ali’s party, the Constitutional Monarchy Movement, is a member of the INC – a broad coalition of Iraqi opposition parties. Sharif Ali is the first cousin of King Faisal II who was deposed and assassinated in 1958.

"For us this is not really about arms inspectors and weapons of mass destruction," he said. "Saddam has the weapons, let there be no doubt about that. The inspectors’ job is only to find them. Saddam Hussein has refused to hand them over. Time is now running out for him and for the Iraqi people."

Sharif Ali said the INC has been in close contact with the U.S. government. His statements about regime change and inspectors mark the clearest sign yet that the U.S. plans to remove Saddam Hussein, irrespective of what the UN inspectors find or do not. "It is coming to the crunch now," he said.

Sharif Ali spelt out that there would be rewards for the U.S. from a new regime. "Iraq is 25 years behind time, 25 years under-invested," he said. "This would be an opportunity to diversify, and to help our friends, particularly those friends who are helping us at the moment."

Sharif Ali said that the U.S. would have a responsibility for the welfare of the Iraqi people if it enters Iraq to carry out the UN resolution. "That would lead to a process under which authority would be transferred from the U.S. military to the Iraqi people," he said. "We would like that transfer to be as quick as possible."

About 350 people said to be representatives of varying shades of Iraqi opposition will attend the London meeting this weekend, Sharif Ali said. The meeting will run Saturday and Sunday after a reception for delegates Friday evening. A press conference announcing decisions from the meeting will be held Monday next week (Dec. 16).

"We will not be forming a government in exile," Sharif Ali said. "But we will set up a committee that will be the focal point for Iraqi people and for international people." Sharif Ali said he himself would play "whatever role the people of Iraq decide."

Sharif Ali claimed that "everyone will be represented, though not everyone will be there." He acknowledged that the extent of representation will be difficult to gauge with any certainty. "If Saddam murders the leaders, it is hard to get an assessment of true representation," he said.

Sharif Ali said that the INC has been in close touch with elements in the Iraqi government and in the Iraqi army who are waiting to overthrow Saddam Hussein. "The Iraqi people will carry out the revolution," he said. "We will bring down the regime and capture the leadership, and we will take advantage of the military strike that might come."

The Iraqi military is likely to shorten the war, Sharif Ali said. "The Republican Guards will not fight for Saddam Hussein," he said, claiming definite information through contacts with army officers within the Republican Guard. "There is no reason, no motivation whatsoever for them to fight for Saddam Hussein."

Outside the Republican Guard, too, "our information is that Iraqi military forces will not protect Saddam Hussein," he said. "These units are joining us, they want to join the revolution." The INC has been informing the U.S. administration of the result of such contacts "as a part of our dialogue with the U.S.," he said.

Sharif Ali said the INC is also working closely with people in government. "There are people within the Iraqi government that are good people with some expertise, and we will need them," he said. "They will not be excluded automatically just because they are in this government."

Sharif Ali said the INC and the people of Iraq are feeling let down by some European countries such as Germany. "We feel let down not on the military side but on the ethical side," he said. "It is fair enough for European governments to have some misgivings over a military conflict. But they should take a stand, that Saddam is a war criminal, that he should be arrested and put on trial for crimes against humanity. His is an illegal regime, but they are pretending he is a sovereign leader who can come and spend his holidays in Europe once the inspectors are gone."

The people in Iraq are "hoping that this time it’s for real" and not some "diplomatic and political dance," Sharif Ali said. In 1991 people rose against Saddam Hussein in 14 of the 18 districts after the cease-fire. In the remaining four he held his grip because the allies became lax, he said. People are now preparing to take over all over Iraq, he said.

"If an attack comes, the forces will not be everywhere," he said. "People will rise to take control of towns and villages, not just palaces and radio stations."

Sharif Ali claimed that the Saddam Hussein regime has "definite links with Al Qaeda." The Iraqi ambassador to Turkey, an intelligence officer, had met representatives of bin Laden in 1999, he said. There is also "a strong possibility though no direct evidence" of Iraqi involvement in the 9/11 attacks, he said.

Sharif Ali is clearly being built up by the U.S. as an alternative to Saddam Hussein. He was born in Baghdad in 1956 but was taken away from there when he was just two years old following the coup against King Faisal II.

Sharif Ali lived in Beirut until the seventies and then moved to London. He made a career for himself in London as a banker after taking a masters degree in the economics of developing countries. He began to work full time for the Constitutional Monarchy Movement in London in 1993.

Living away from Iraq has not been a disadvantage, he says. "Access to information within Iraq is very limited," he said. "Those outside Iraq know much more about the situation inside Iraq than the people inside."

The INC claims to be a voice of diverse forces of the Iraqi opposition. It aims to be "a credible political alternative for all the Iraqi people without prejudice or differentiation and with full representation of all groups and communities within the population, including Sunnis, Shias, Kurds, Christians and all other minorities."

The INC began a series of meetings in the Middle East and Europe to establish a formal structure and to put in place a plan of action to remove the dictatorship soon after the 1991 war. Meeting in Vienna in June 1992, the INC elected a National Assembly of 87 members; this was expanded to 234 members at Salahuddin, in liberated northern Iraq in October 1992, according to a statement on its website (www.inc.org.uk). The INC has established its headquarters in Salahuddin with its external base in London.

The membership of its Executive Council includes groups based in Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and other countries in the region and Europe, it says.