| |
'Liberal sheikh' returns
home
By Sanjay Suri
LONDON -
The son of a former Iraq prime minister plans to return
to Iraq this week to offer his share of leadership. Saad
Saleh Jabr, whose father Saleh Jabr was prime minister
in 1947-48 during the reign of King Faisal II, will
return to Iraq after 35 years of exile spent in the
United States and Britain.
Jabr follows Sharif
Ali, a cousin of former King Faisal II, who has returned
from Britain to Iraq to offer monarchy as a unifying
force. Despite the high royal position of his father,
Sharif Ali has not got far down the royal road in
presenting monarchy as a viable choice.
Several
other exiled Iraqis have returned to Iraq from Britain
to engage in political life on the strength of their
connections with the US and British governments during
their period of exile.
Jabr, who has been
working as a middleman for Western companies to win
contracts in the Arab world during his years in exile,
has been a force among Iraqi opposition leaders largely
on the strength of that lineage, and of weekly
newspapers he produced from 1984 up until the invasion
of Iraq last year. He launched the first Iraqi
opposition newspaper al-Tayar from his base in London in
1984. That was followed up by a new weekly Free Iraq in
1992.
"Every opposition leader in Iraq is
familiar with the newspapers," Jabr told IPS. "In fact
half the members of the Governing Council have graduated
from our group."
A spokesman for the Governing
Council called him in London to discuss his political
agenda on return to Iraq, Jabr said, adding that he had
discussed his return to Iraq with senior British
officials and with senior leaders within Iraq. "I'll
talk to the Americans when I get there," he said. But US
officials are making arrangements for his security, he
said.
Jabr has had mixed relations with the
United States. His wife is from the US "and I'm a big
baseball fan", he says. Jabr says that he has
corresponded twice with US officials, including Central
Intelligence Agency officials, to support coup attempts
against Saddam Hussein. The attempts failed, and the US
must take a fair share of blame for that, Jabr says.
Jabr heads a political party, the Free Iraqi
Council. That will now add to about 120 political
parties already in existence in Iraq. "But my real aim
is to bring these parties together," he said. "For five
years we should freeze all the separate political
activities and work together to rebuild Iraq."
Parties need to come together urgently in order
to stop different groups going their own ways, he said.
"There are differences emerging between Arabs and Kurds,
and between Shi'ites and Sunnis," he said. "We are
getting to the stage when this kind of thing could get
out of hand."
Discussions with key Iraqi leaders
suggest that many are keen to consider a joint action
plan by political parties, Jabr said. "My main aim is to
get everyone together. I want to tell people that
goddammit, where is this sectarianism going to get you?
I am a sheikh, but I am a liberal sheikh."
Jabr
plans to make his move to unify parties outside any
efforts by the Governing Council. "I am glad that some
people have accepted those positions on the Governing
Council, but I would not have accepted that myself," he
told media representatives earlier.
Jabr says
that he will push for rule by Iraqis to replace the US.
"They can take all the bases they want, wherever they
want, but they should leave the running of the country
to Iraqis, we know how to do it, let us run the show."
Jabr is keen to convince Iraqis and the West
that he can have a role to play. The elderly leader came
to a press meeting walking unsteadily with the support
of a stick. "You must ask why I walk with a stick," he
said. "I overdid the exercising and hurt my back. I will
leave this stick behind when I return to Iraq."
(Inter Press Service)
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
