Iraq's New Leader ?

[The_Rorschach]

Iraqi Shiite Opposition Leader to Return Home After 23 Years in Exile in Iran
By Ali Akbar Dareini Associated Press Writer
Published: Apr 7, 2003


TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - The leader of the largest Iraqi opposition group has decided to return home now that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime is under heavy pressure from the U.S.-led military invasion. "Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim has made a definite decision to return home after 23 years in exile," the Ayatollah's spokesman, Haj Abu Zeid, told The Associated Press on Monday. He said al-Hakim had not given a date for his return.
"It could be in a few days or in a few weeks. The timing depends on the developing situation in Iraq," he said. "Iraq is our motherland. We don't need permission to go home."
Al-Hakim heads the Tehran-based Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, whose military wing, the Badr Corps, claims 10,000 fighters in Iraq and Iran. The group has said for years that it has spread guerrillas throughout Iraq in anticipation of a revolution.
The spokesman said his party has told the Badr troops inside Iraq to refrain from any military confrontation with the U.S.-led forces and wait for Saddam's fall. He reiterated his group's rejection of a U.S. administration in Iraq.
"The Iraqi nation will not accept U.S. domination," Abu Zeid said. "We don't expect the Americans to stay in Iraq after Saddam is toppled."
On Sunday, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said that a U.S.-led coalition probably will run the country for at least six months until a new Iraqi government is in place.
Al-Hakim said last month that coalition forces were welcome in Iraq as long as they helped the Iraqi people get rid of Saddam's dictatorship, but not to "colonize" the country. His openness to the United States contrasts with the frosty relations between Washington and Iran, where al-Hakim has found a haven.
Meanwhile, Iranian Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi said that more than 100 members of the Iranian opposition group, the People's Mujahedeen, have returned to Iran and given themselves up to authorities, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported late Sunday.
The militant group, which advocates a secular government and seeks to overthrow Iran's ruling clerics, was supported by Saddam.
AP-ES-04-07-03 0717EDT