Kurdish Leader Calls for the Elimination of Ladenite Ansar Al-Islam.

By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 9, 2002; Page A20

The Bush administration intends to tell leaders of the fractious Iraqi opposition at a rare State Department meeting today to end their squabbles and unite in preparation for the end of Saddam Hussein's rule in Iraq, administration officials said.

A carefully staged session with U.S. diplomatic, military and intelligence officials is designed to convince Hussein's opponents that they must organize in concrete ways after years of fruitless attempts to undermine him. The administration also wants the opposition to endorse an alternative democratic, multi-ethnic vision marketable to Iraqis and skeptical countries in the region.

The gathering is equally intended to show that a Bush team long divided about which Iraqi opposition groups to support -- and how to support them -- can develop a coordinated approach. In a signal of the issue's significance, Vice President Cheney will speak with the visiting Iraqis by video telephone on Saturday.

The session with six of the most prominent Iraqi opposition groups comes as President Bush, who is aiming to topple Hussein, faces questions from Congress and foreign allies about the depth of U.S. preparations for the use of force. Senators from both parties emphasized during hearings last week that the administration must develop credible Iraqi partners and a realistic plan to establish stability if Hussein is targeted.

Iraqi opposition figures, including members of the Iraqi National Congress, said this week that they will be listening for the beginnings of a plan for post-Hussein Iraq. Several said they see the invitation as a positive sign that the Bush team is taking them seriously. Iraqi opposition leaders have not met with a U.S. vice president since a session with Vice President Al Gore in June 2000.

Atop their list of priorities, they said, is a stronger security guarantee from the Americans should Hussein turn against them, particularly in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq now patrolled by U.S. fighter jets. Several leaders said the Bush administration should pledge to protect Iraqi civilians and much of the national infrastructure in the event of a large-scale U.S. invasion.

Sources close to the INC leadership said the organization wants to revive the idea of creating an interim government on Iraqi soil as a prelude to taking power. The INC leadership and others in the established exile opposition worry that Hussein will be replaced by a military figure who would be unlikely to welcome their participation.

Today's State Department meeting was convened by Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman and Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith, as a gesture of unity from two agencies that have sparred for years over the treatment of the INC and other opposition groups.

The Defense Department agreed last month to fund the covert operations of the INC, a London-based umbrella group led by Ahmed Chalabi that is favored by some Pentagon officials and members of Congress. The State Department has questioned INC accounting practices and withheld about $8 million from the organization while the two sides work on a spending plan.

"People finally looked up and said we should all be doing this together. Not being together was a big waste of time," a senior administration official said. Significant disagreements remain within the administration, however, about personalities and approach.

Today's session is viewed as an introductory meeting by the administration, which did not invite a number of opposition groups that have become increasingly prominent in administration thinking, including clusters of former Iraqi military officers. If all goes well, those groups will be included in a larger conference the administration hopes the Iraqi opposition will arrange in coming months, sources said.

Opposition sources say they are being encouraged to think about constructive administrative roles -- such as running towns, organizing relief projects and managing development -- in a post-Hussein Iraq.

The Americans are also urging the Iraqi groups to commit themselves to the administration's vision of a democratic Iraq that divides power among ethnic groups and forswears weapons of mass destruction and hostility toward nearby countries such as Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Such a commitment could inspire support for controversial U.S. intentions and soothe worries about Iraq's future, administration officials say. Some in the administration would prefer opposition organizations attending any future conferences to endorse such principles first.

"People need to think there are some alternatives to Saddam Hussein," a senior administration official said. "People think he is all-powerful and he has the only view of what Iraq should be. At the beginning, you have to help people understand there's another way of looking at Iraq, that this is how Iraq could be."

Among those expected to attend today's meeting are the INC's Chalabi and Ayad Allawi, leader of the Iraqi National Accord, as well as Patriotic Union of Kurdistan leader Jalal Talabani and Hoshyar Zebari from the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

Also expected are Abdelaziz Baqir Al-Hakim, brother of the head of the Tehran-based Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, and Sharif Ali Bin AlHussein, an INC member and cousin of the last Iraqi king who describes himself as "candidate heir to the throne of Iraq."

If the administration intends to ask the Iraqi opposition to take stronger steps against Hussein, who used chemical weapons against Kurdish villages and has executed countless enemies, some opponents say they want a greater commitment of support from the White House in return.

"We have to take risks, but at the same time, we must not risk people's lives unnecessarily," said a Kurdish opposition member. "We want a more credible, clearer and firmer security guarantee than we have now."