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8/9/2002 (12:01) |
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Saddam threatens 'victory over Israel with the Palestinians'
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF AND AP
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein threatened Thursday he would one day celebrate a victory over Israel with the Palestinians, media reports said.
He was quoted by Army Radio from a speech in Baghdad marking the anniversary of the end of the Iraq-Iran war of 1980-88.
The Iraqi leader also issued veiled threats against the US, saying that anyone who attacks his country will die in 'disgraceful failure.'
The United States has warned Iraq of consequences if it does not allow UN inspections to resume, and Iraqi diplomats have held three meetings with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan this year to discuss the issue and related topics.
'The right way is that the Security Council should reply to the questions raised by Iraq and should honor its obligations under its own resolutions,' Saddam said in the televised speech.
'There is no other choice for those who use threat and aggression,' he added.
Saddam was referring to 19 questions given to Annan at a meeting in March, and to security council resolutions which say that UN sanctions on Iraq can be lifted once it has eliminated its weapons of mass destruction and met other requirements.
Iraq has long said it has fulfilled these conditions and that the sanctions imposed since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait should be lifted.
Annan circulated the 19 questions to the Security Council members, who have not replied. The questions deal with various Iraqi complaints, including the prospect of a US attack and the scope of weapons inspections.
Saddam spoke dressed in a dark gray suit in front of a white curtain and with a spread of white lilies on his desk.
As he spoke, about 15,000 members of the 'Jerusalem Army' marched through Baghdad in a display of support for the president. Dressed in khaki uniforms and carrying Kalashikov rifles, the marchers bore photographs of Saddam and Palestinian and Iraqi flags.
In the past week, the government has organized several such demonstrations by the Jerusalem Army, a force of civilians that Saddam set up in 2000 with the aim of driving the Israelis out of Jerusalem and supporting the Palestinian uprising.
Reports from Washington say the US government is gearing up for an attack to topple Saddam. US officials have not ruled out such a strike, but insist no decision has been made.
US Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that if Saddam is not stopped, 'it's the judgment of many of us that, in the not too distant future, he will acquire nuclear weapons.'
Cheney said he was skeptical that the return of UN inspectors, whom Iraq has refused access since 1998, would solve the problem of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
In his speech, Saddam did not name America and Britain, but referred to them as the 'forces of evil' a phrase the Baghdad government frequently uses after US-British airstrikes in the no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq.
'The forces of evil will carry their coffins on their backs to die in disgraceful failure,' he said.
Saddam told viewers that the Iraq-Iran war ended in victory and sounded upbeat about the country's current predicament.
'Darkness shall be defeated, and every cloud that carries no useful rain shall be dispersed, giving way to the sun to usher in endless spring, blessed by God,' he said.
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