Yet it has not always seemed that way to the Iraqi political figures and former opposition leaders.

"I don't think they trust this group to function as a political leadership," said the Iraqi political figure who attended.

"They retracted what they said before," an Iraqi political figure said.

"We don't want to clash with them," one Iraqi political figure said tonight.

But Iraqi political figures are not just speaking the language of democratic transformation.

Iraqi political figures were engaged in a different kind of selection process.

Iraqi political figures who attended the meeting said the grand ayatollah was critical of postwar conditions in Iraq.

But several Iraqi political figures said they doubted that would happen.

A handful of Iraqi political figures has defected to Iran.

The senior Iraqi figures are a different story.