Iraqi opposition announces new leadership

WASHINGTON -- The U.S.-supported Iraqi opposition has decided on a new leadership in the effort to overthrow President Saddam Hussein.

The Iraqi National Congress ended a four-day conference with the election of seven men. They included independents, Kurdish representatives, an Islamist and a monarchist.

"The agenda is that we will institute a democratic, pluralistic regime that respects human rights and the rule of law and the Iraqi people have the right to choose what form of government they want," Sharif Ali Bin Al Hussein, one of the members, said. "This is our principal goal that we are all united on."

Hussein was a member of Iraq's last monarchy overthrown in 1958. Other members of the ruling council are Ayad Allawi of Iraq National Accord; Riyad Al-Yawar, Independent; Ahmed Chalabi, Independent; Sheikh Mohammed Mohammed Ali, Independent Islamic; Latif Rashid, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Hoshyar Zibari, Kurdistan Democratic Party.

The INC conference in New York also elected a 65-member Central Council. The council called on opposition groups that stayed away from the parley to join the coalition.

"We believe that international support for and solidarity with the Iraqi people are urgently needed," U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Pickering said. "It is high time now to join free Iraqis, through the Iraqi National Congress, in preparing. The United States will stand with you after the change of the regime, as we stand with you now in advancing the historic day of Iraq's transition."

INC leaders said they wered told by Pickering that the United States would defend the opposition from an attack by Saddam. This would include an intensification of the no-drive zone in the south.

But the leaders did not envision immediate military action against Saddam and some of them appeared skeptical over U.S. promises.

"We do not seek any precipitous action," Chalabi said. "We don't want a lot of guns blazing into the sunshine. This is not about a lot of guns. The other things are more important at this stage."

In Baghdad, Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan said the U.S. training of four opposition members in a military academy in Florida was ridiculous. "All the honest people in the world laugh for the method Washington is using to interfere in Iraq's internal affairs," he said.