WASHINGTON/ARBIL, 27 February 2003 — Top Iraqi dissident Ahmad Chalabi on Tuesday rejected as “unacceptable” plans for a US military administration of Iraq based on the remnants of the current Iraqi regime once Saddam Hussein is ousted. “Iraqis must choose their own government,” Chalabi, who heads the London-based Iraqi National Congress umbrella opposition group, said in an interview with ABC television. He described as “unacceptable” Washington’s plan to have a reformed ruling Baath Party “work de facto under the protection of US military administration.”

Secretary of State Colin Powell told the just-launched Arabic-language Al-Arabiya news channel last week that a US military commander would be placed in initial charge of Iraq after a victory by US-led forces massing in the region. He said the commander would not only run the military operation but take responsibility for orderly civilian life after any conflict, including ensuring that humanitarian aid gets in.

Chalabi told ABC: “An extended US administration ... in Iraq is unworkable ... a US administration will have very little knowledge of Arab society.” Chalabi, who was speaking from an undisclosed location in northern Iraq, also said he could not imagine Americans “representing Arabs in organizations of Muslim countries (...) (such) as the Arab League.” The prominent Iraqi dissident said there was “very little doubt that war is coming.”

Saddam Hussein, meanwhile, has told a US television reporter that he has no intention either of going into exile or of setting fire to Iraqi oil fields in case of an invasion. “I was born here in Iraq... Whoever decides to forsake his nation from whoever requests is not true to the principles. We will die here,” Saddam told CBS news anchorman Dan Rather.

Iraq’s opposition groups yesterday opened key talks in the rebel-held north of the country, with Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani calling on the disparate groups to give a strong show of unity. “I hope this meeting will be the beginning of unifying the work of the Iraqi opposition with the help and support of the international community, for a united, democratic and federal Iraq,” Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, told a packed hall in Salahaddin, a hill-top town 20 kilometers north of the main Iraqi Kurdish city of Arbil.

“We must mobilize our full forces and potential, to establish a legitimate constitution through democratic elections. I call on you to close ranks at this time for our shared goals.” The talks have been overshadowed by fears of being sidelined by the US in a post-Saddam Iraq, but the US special representative to the Iraqi opposition, Zalmay Khalilzad, took up a front-row seat.