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"They
don't dare ambush us because they know they will be
killed," he told The Independent defiantly in an
interview just after the latest attack was foiled.
He expected the assassination campaign against
government ministers to escalate.
The bomb yesterday was the second attempt on his
life in recent months. He shows, with a certain
pride, two photographs of another car bomb
containing 800kg of explosives that had been
intercepted near his house.
The elaborate bomb included white blocks of TNT, a
dozen or more 130mm shells and even a torpedo all
connected with red electrical wire. "It's
frightening," he said. "The whole neighbourhood
would have been wiped out, not one or two or three
houses."
Mr Zebari, a veteran leader of the Kurdistan
Democratic Party who fought as a guerrilla for many
years against Saddam Hussein in the mountains of
Kurdistan, expects the insurgents to try again. He
said the number of their operations had dropped from
106 a day to between 60 and 80 since the capture of
Fallujah. But, overall, he did not sound optimistic
that the level of violence would be much reduced.
He confirmed Dr Iyad Allawi will go to Jordan on
Wednesday or close to that date to talk to opponents
of the government. But he was quick to add that it
was not a conference. The meetings would be with
"religious leaders, tribal chiefs and Baathists,
though not those on the wanted list". Most come from
the western Iraqi city of Ramadi which after
Fallujah is one of the main centres of resistance.
Mr Zebari left no doubt that the Iraqi election
would go ahead on 30 January. He said the Iraqi
National Security Council, of which he is a member,
had met at the weekend and decided the poll must go
ahead. "Any postponement, any weakness will benefit
our enemies, our opponents.
"There are no guarantees that the security would be
better if there was a postponement." He added with a
laugh that there were also no assurances that
security would be any better after the election.
The reason why the Sunni party leaders wanted a
delay was obvious enough, said the Foreign Minister.
They feared a boycott of the poll in Sunni districts
which would wipe them out politically. "They are
afraid there will be a Shia majority and they are
not organised enough," Mr Zebari said. "They need
consensual arrangements with other communities."
Mr Zebari thought the uprising in Sunni parts of
Iraq would fail because it was an attempt by a
minority to impose its will. He said "definitely the
great majority of the Iraqi people will not tolerate
a minority hijacking the country at gunpoint for its
own selfish power interests."
The US is strongly committed to a poll on 30
January. The election was mentioned repeatedly by
George Bush as a symbol of the success of his policy
of bringing democracy to Iraq. And Grand Ayatollah
Ali al-Sistani, the influential Shia religious
leader, has long demanded an election. The US and
the interim government do not want to alienate him.
http://news.independent.co.uk
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