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| Author: | Sharon Otterman |
|---|
April 29, 2003
There were six main organizations that represented a mix of ethnic, religious, and political sentiments. All of them were designated by the U.S. government as official opposition parties, which meant they were eligible for U.S. financial assistance under the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act. There were dozens of other, smaller groups opposed to Saddam Hussein.
They all wanted to oust Saddam Hussein. But they have a long history of disagreement over a range of issues, including the ethnic composition of a post-Saddam government and whether the country should be a secular or an Islamist state. With the fall of Saddam, the infighting is continuing.
The opposition groups, at the urging of the Bush administration, have attempted to get along. In August 2002, the "Group of Six" convened in Washington and pledged to work together to establish a democratic government in Iraq. That agreement led to a December 2002 meeting in London, where more than 300 anti-Saddam activists approved a call for a democratic, federal, parliamentary government. At the end of the four-day conference, they formed a 65-member committee that included representatives of all the major groups and some of the smaller organizations.
A similar meeting was convened in the Kurdish-controlled northern Iraqi town of Salahuddin in 1992, when some 200 delegates from about 30 parties pledged to oust Saddam and establish a democratic, unified state based on a federal structure. How much influence these agreements will have in the new Iraq is not yet known.
No individual group can claim to be Washington's unquestioned favorite, and experts say different government agencies favor different groups. The Pentagon has traditionally supported the INC, which hoped to create an Iraqi government in exile. Some White House staffers also backed the INC. The Department of State hasn't backed one opposition party over the others and instead appears to have broadly advocated creation of a new government based on grassroots democracy and elections in a post-Saddam Iraq. The CIA has backed the Iraqi National Accord; its failed 1996 coup attempt was reportedly funded by the agency.
Though all of the groups have agreed to work with the United States, it's difficult to gauge the depth of their allegiance. The New York Times reported on December 13 that key opposition figures, including Barzani of the KDP and Chalabi of the INC, were forging ties to Iran, Iraq's neighbor and a longtime foe of the United States. SCIRI is known to have close ties with Iran's ruling elite. Iran's population, like Iraq's, is majority Shiite.
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