Iran's rulers split over helping U.S. against Saddam

WASHINGTON Ñ U.S. efforts to woo the Iranian-backed Shi'ite opposition to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein have met with difficulties.

Arab diplomatic sources following the efforts said both the Iranian regime in Teheran and its supporters in the Shi'ite opposition to Iraq are divided over whether to cooperate with the Bush administration. Iranian President Mohammed Khatami and his followers are advocating such an approach, but Iranian hardliners and their constituency in the Shi'ite opposition to Saddam have objected.

The administration's efforts are based on the assessment that the Iranian-backed Shi'ite opposition Ñ with up to 8,000 insurgents Ñ is the most powerful element in the campaign against Saddam. The Shi'ites are believed to have assassinated several key figures in the regime and seriously wounded Saddam's son, Uday, Middle East Newsline reported.

The United States is trying to organize a meeting of Iraqi opposition elements next month that would include the Iranian-backed Shi'ites. The meeting is part of the Bush administration's review of U.S. policy toward Iraq that includes the future of United Nations sanctions, the no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq and ensuring the needs of the Iraqi people.

On Tuesday, U.S. Pentagon officials met Iraqi opposition. They did not include the Iranian-backed opposition. Three U.S.-backed Kurdish groups have accused the Iranian-backed Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq of assassinating a leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party in northern Iraq in February.

Last week, the administration received a boost when Mohammed Bakr Hakim, head of the Teheran-based council, said his group was ready for direct talks with the United States. Hakim told the London-based Al Hayat daily that even Iran has an indirect dialogue with Washington.

"We have no objection to a direct dialogue with the American administration," Hakim said. "Why must the Iraqi opposition, confronting all of this repression [by Saddam] not speak with the U.S. administration? The whole world holds talks with the United States. The Islamic Republic of Iran holds dialogue through intermediaries."

Hakim's remarks were criticized by some on the council. Critics said Hakim did not have the authority to speak for the group on such a sensitive topic. In the past, the group has objected to dealing with Washington on grounds that included what they termed was the U.S. failure to care for the needs of the Shi'ites in southern Iraq.

Opposition leaders have accused the Saddam regime of poisoning the marshlands used by Shi'ites in the south and leaving them without means of livelihood or food.

"The people of Iraq are suffering the effects of a cocktail of deadly toxins Ñ high rates of cancer, particularly leukemia among children, congenital deformations and abortion," Dr. Hussein Al Sharristani, of the Iraq Refugee Aid Council told a Washington conference last week. "The chemical and biological warfare material presently in Saddam's hands are enough to kill almost all the population of Iraq in less than a day."