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| Iraq |
| Shiite opposition rejects US military rule in post-war Iraq |
| 2003-03-07 |
| Iraq's Shiite Muslim opposition at a closed-door meeting here Thursday rejected US plans to impose military rule if President Saddam Hussein is toppled, an official of the main Shiite group said. Mohsen al-Hakim of the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) told AFP that 250 delegates from the opposition exiled in Iran also opposed taking power in the name of Iraq's majority Shiite community. Hakim's father Abdel Aziz al-Hakim was named at an opposition meeting late February in Kurdistan as part of a six-member collective leadership also including Sunni Arabs and Kurds. "The Shiites insist that the future government be in the hands of the Iraqis, so as to establish peace and stability," said Mohsen al-Hakim. "Yeah, buddy! Once these eggs hatch, we're gonna have 2,987 chickens! Let's divide 'em up now!" "A non-Iraqi military leader to head Iraq would be a source of instability, just like a non-American military leader at the head of the United States," the official said. With an Iraqi leader, they've had nothing but He said the Shiites were not seeking to set up their own government, but were rather "committed to the principles of political participation, diversity and legality". They had to go to Teheran to say that... "All the ethnic and religious groups should take part in deciding the political future of Iraq," said Hakim. Apart from SAIRI, representatives of the Islamic Action Organisation and Al-Daawa party were invited to the Tehran conference organised by an Iranian strategic research centre, Neda. Then just think of the Merkins as another ethnic or religious group. A big one, without whom you could squat in Teheran plotting and planning for another 20 or 30 years, okay? |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |