Iraqi opposition leaders to hold talks with Cheney
Iraqi opposition leaders were today planning to take part in a video conference call with US Vice President Dick Cheney following their discussions in Washington about the need for a new era of freedom in Iraq.
The Iraqis were assembling at the White House for the call with Cheney, who is spending part of August at his home in Wyoming.
President George W Bush yesterday said he had made no decision on a timetable for a military strike against Iraq.
"And if I did, I wouldn’t tell you or the enemy," Bush said during a brief interview at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Pressed on whether he would decide this year, he said: "Not necessarily."
The Iraqi visitors, representing six opposition groups, received assurances during yesterday’s meeting that the US will fulfill commitments to protect Iraqis who face possible attacks from Saddam Hussein’s forces.
US officials later recalled that Saddam used poison gas against Iraqi Kurds in 1988 and sent troops into the Kurdish areas in 1991 to put down an uprising shortly after the end of the Gulf War.
In the event of any additional attacks on the Kurds, the US would respond, said an official.
A spokesman for the Iraqi delegation, Dr Hamid al-Bayati, said the group had requested US protection for the Iraqi people from "regime oppression".
He also said the Iraqis presented their vision "for the overthrow of the dictatorial regime in Iraq".
The US officials said the Iraqis made no request for military aid or training. They said the US side was struck by the conviction of each of the Iraqi leaders to fight for a democratic Iraq and for the establishment of the rule of law.
Secretary of State Colin Powell made a brief appearance at the start of the meeting and told the gathering: "Our shared goal is that the Iraqi people should be free."
Leading the Iraqi delegation was Ahmed Chalabi, a longtime Iraqi exile who heads the Iraqi National Congress, an opposition umbrella group.
Chalabi sat across from Under-Secretary of State Marc Grossman and Under-Secretary of Defence Douglas Feith.
At the Pentagon, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he would like to see Iraq evolve the way Afghanistan has - with a government that supports terrorism replaced by one with a democratic cast.
He also said he is opposed to the fragmentation of Iraq, an outcome that some believe could result from a US military attack. Under some scenarios, the Kurdish population of northern Iraq would break away and form their own state.
"We would like to see a country that forswears weapons of mass destruction and says, ‘That’s really not in the interest of the people," Rumsfeld added.
He also expressed concern that international economic sanctions against Iraq have eroded over time.
"People decide they don’t agree with them any more, and they start trading," Rumsfeld said.
"People figure clever ways to get around them with dual-use technologies. People do it illegally across borders, and these are porous borders."
