Exiled Iraqi officers meeting in London last weekend backed United States efforts to remove Saddam Hussein, but promised they would not seek to replace him with another military regime.
The 60 former senior officers, several with the rank of general, avoided discussing blueprints for overthrowing the president.
Apparently aiming to reassure Iraqis that a change of regime would not result in another dictatorship, they approved a military charter of honour declaring their readiness to join ”any effort to establish a new democratic federal regime, based on the rule of law and civil society”.
They said they would welcome ”any foreign help” to get rid of President Saddam Hussein’s regime and urged all Iraqi soldiers, inside and outside the country, to work together to achieve this aim.
The conference was organised by a group called the Iraqi Military Alliance. It was the first time that so many defectors from the Iraqi army had been able to meet and talk freely.
The US-funded Iraqi National Congress, an umbrella organisation for opposition groups that had not previously been involved, declared its ”total support” for the gathering. The US State Department has expressed concern over how American taxpayers’ money is being used by the group.
The attendance of Jordan’s Prince Hassan, brother of the late King Hussein, at the conference threatens to rupture Baghdad’s relations with Jordan. Arab journalists said it was unlikely that the prince would have made his high-profile intervention without the permission of the Jordanian King, Abdullah.
Some suggested Abdullah may have decided Saddam is doomed and that it is time to build bridges with the Iraqi opposition.
Sources at the meeting said that there was more agreement than many had expected. The main issue debated was whether Iraq should have a federal system of government, which the Kurds strongly favour because it would guarantee them a measure of autonomy.
Some representatives urged that the decision on the system of government should be left to a referendum. But the Kurds said a referendum immediately after the overthrow of Saddam could inflame ethnic and sectarian rivalries.
The charter of honour commits the officers to abide by the decisions of the Iraqi people and to withdraw from political affairs once a change of regime occurs.
Arab analysts said the document would probably attract middle-ranking officers in Iraq, but some in the highest ranks would not welcome its emphasis on democracy.
The highest-ranking general in exile, Nizar al-Khazraji, who is understood to prefer rule by a military council when Saddam is overthrown, was pointedly absent from the conference.
Brigadier General Najib al-Salihi, one of the central figures at the meeting, predicted that the Iraqi army would fold immediately if the US attacked. ”Morale is at a disastrous level, and the troops are sick of continuous war. Saddam will find himself surrounded by a few hundred soldiers,” he said.
The US, he said, had to declare it was only after Saddam and not his troops, otherwise it would not have the support of the Iraqi people or the army.
US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who was in Turkey for talks on the struggle against terrorism and the rebuilding of Afghanistan, said Turkey would benefit from a regime change in Baghdad. Wolfowitz, speaking at a conference in Istanbul, said Saddam’s regime presented ”a danger we cannot live with indefinitely”.
Meanwhile British Prime Minister Tony Blair is preparing for a ”lightning visit” to meet President George W Bush at a specially convened war summit, as the US continues to press for a military invasion of Iraq.
In a move that will heighten speculation that the US is in the final stages of planning an assault against Saddam, a date later in the year for the summit at Camp David has been put forward.