The Iraqi National Congress was to meet Friday in London with former army officers, opponents of President Saddam Hussein and a US official to discuss ways of toppling his regime.
The three days of talks are the latest in a series of meetings of Iraqi dissidents as speculation circulates that Washington will make Iraq a target of its campaign against terrorism.
Iraqi army officers will come ”from all over the world” for the meeting, which will be held at an undisclosed location, said Albert Yelda of the Iraqi National Coalition.
All Iraqi opposition movements, large or small, have been invited to the meeting which will discuss how to topple the existing regime, Iraq’s future and the role of the army post-Saddam, he added.
US President George Bush vowed on Monday to use ”all tools” at his disposal to remove Saddam.
Bush said that the world would be a safer place once he had been overthrown, adding that he was personally engaged in ”all aspects” of planning to achieve that goal.
”This is not a conference that we’ve supported financially, but we do support the idea of a broad-based military conference,” US State Department representative Richard Boucher has said.
”We hope the conference helps the Iraqi community move closer to a goal of a better future for the Iraqi people after Saddam Hussein.
”We are in very frequent touch with Iraqi opposition groups and work with a whole variety of opposition groups regarding Iraq,” he added.
The meeting comes the day after China said it was opposed to US plans to oust Saddam, arguing that the Middle Eastern country’s sovereignty should not be violated.
”(Iraq’s) sovereignty and territorial integrity should be completely respected,” foreign ministry representative Liu Jianchao said at a press briefing.
The New York Times reported recently that a top secret US military document has outlined a massive, three-pronged attack on Iraq by land, sea and air with as many as 250 000 troops and hundreds of warplanes.
The Daily Telegraph said here on Friday that British and US spies are on the ground already in Iraq fomenting revolt among opposition groups and potential traitors in Saddam’s inner circle.
”American personnel are supporting the Iraqi opposition and working with dissatisfied elements within Saddam’s regime… Britain is involved too,” a senior official told the daily.
The INC, an umbrella group for the Iraqi opposition, is one of several such organisations funded by Washington, receiving some $15-million (15,2-million euros, 9,7-million pounds) to date.
Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz was in South Africa recently for a five-day visit that included a meeting in Pretoria with President Thabo Mbeki.
Aziz arrived from Baghdad via Damascus and Khartoum at the head of a six-man delegation and was given a red-carpet welcome at Waterkloof Air Force Base outside the capital.
”I am carrying the best wishes from my leader Saddam Hussein to President Mbeki and the South African leadership,” he said after being met by Transport Minister Dullah Omar and Arab ambassadors.
The deputy prime minister added that ”South Africa is the leader of the Non-Aligned Movement which is a very important international organisation. The South African government and leadership have done their best to help us (overcome the effects of sanctions) with the Non-Aligned Movement and unilaterally.
”The situation in the whole Third World is so bad that we have to work with each other to improve our situation internationally.”
South Africa’s foreign ministry said the Pretoria government intended to exchange views with Aziz on the situation in the Middle East ”and, in particular, on the expected effects of the new sanctions regime for the people of Iraq who have been subject to severe suffering by more than 10 years of stringent international sanctions”.