29 October 2004	Friday	14 Ramazan 1425

LONDON, Oct 28: The Iraqi resistance forces fighting the occupation troops in their country plan to set up a government of transition for two years after throwing out the invaders.

This was disclosed here by a former governor of Iraq's Central Bank who had suffered Saddam Hussain's jail for over two years and now visiting London on the invitation of Centre for Arab Unity Studies.

He said during the transition period the interim Iraqi government will introduce laws for fair and free elections and for establishing a multiparty system and then, he added, elections will be held at the end of two years.

Speaking to a group of London-based Iraqis and a couple of journalists here on Tuesday at the chambers of an Independent British MP, George Galloway in the House of Commons, Dr.K. Haseeb who now lives in Lebanon said that the leadership of the resistance had chalked out a comprehensive plan to fight the occupation forces, throw them out of their country and set up a government of transition leading to the establishment of democracy in Iraq.

This plan, according to Dr. Haseeb, was made by some very far sighted Iraqi individuals even before the invading troops entered Baghdad. He said there were five different resistance groups operating inside his country but with one objective-to throw the occupying forces out. "One group is led by Iraqi Islamist, the other by fundamentalists, the third by sofi Muslims, the fourth by Mr. Zarqawi and the fifth by some nationalists," he added.

He said these groups operate under different leadership but cooperate and collaborate on operation to operation basis, "and contrary to what the US administration wants the world to believe there is no Shia-Sunni divide among the resistance."

He said, the first three groups were the most potent and operated with a high degree of efficiency, " Mr. Zarqawi, however, does not have more than 200 people behind him and those who have met him say that he is not capable of doing all that he is being credited with by the Americans."

He denounced those who kidnap and kill those not at all involved in the war, but said most of such things were being staged by the Americans and the Israelis to give a bad name to resistance, " to demonize and criminalize a freedom struggle." He blamed Mossad and the CIA for the killings of innocent Iraqis, "they also kill our scholars and scientists so that the resistance is deprived of their valuable services in their fight against the occupying troops."

When asked why he was so optimistic about the success of resistance against the troops of the only super power in the world when the people of Iraq could not even get rid of Saddam on their own, Dr. Haseeb said that while his people could tolerate a dictator of their own, they have a history of resisting foreign occupation and reminded the audience that only in 1920 the Iraqis had waged a successful resistance against British occupation.

Responding to a question as to how the government of transition would administer Iraq after the occupying forces are thrown out when all the apparatus of the state, like the police, the civil service and the military have been wiped out of existence in the on going war, Dr. Haseeb said, the resistance knew the difficulties ahead and was well prepared to meet these challenges.

" Yes, we know we need a Mandela, a Nehru to reconstruct the nation when we get rid of the US troops."

In his opening remarks, Dr. Haseeb said that the present day policies of the US were being driven by two factors: one, to control the oil of the world and the second to ensure the security of Israel. These two factors, he said, have pushed them into ( the US) into this "unwinable war", " You see, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US had decided that it would no more allow any country or groups of countries to challenge its super power status.".

According to him, the US was worried that the GNP of the Europe had gone higher than that of the US and also that of China which said was growing at an annual average growth rate of 8-9 per cent was fast closing the economic gap between Washington and Beijing, "so they concluded that the only way they could maintain their economic and political hegemony over the world was by capturing the Middle East oil and the routes through which the Central Asian fossil fuel flowed."

He was not very sure whether Mr. Kerry, if he won the forthcoming US elections would be able to change this strategy, but hoped that at least he would not be as callous in his dealings with the people of the Middle East as President Bush has been.

He was all praise for the British media, specially the BBC which he said gave a balanced picture of what was happing in Iraq. He also expressed his gratitude to the people of Britain for taking out the world's largest rally against the Iraq war and for the continuous support from the people of Britain for the Iraqi cause. He brushed aside all questions relating to the identity of the leadership of the five groups fighting the war of resistance in Iraq.