Getting Saddam Means Killing 25 Million Iraqis: Sabri
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Iraqis perform Friday prayers |
BAGHDAD,
Aug 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The United States will have
to kill every Iraqi before getting to President Saddam Hussein, Iraqi
Foreign Minister Naji Sabri warned in an interview with a Qatari
newspaper Friday, August 9, 2002.
"The
U.S. administration will have to kill 25 million Iraqis before
touching a hair (on the head) of President Saddam Hussein," Sabri
told Al-Raya daily.
"Iraq
possesses great fighting capabilities and is ready militarily" to
confront any U.S. forces, Sabri stressed.
Those
who "undertake an attack (on Iraq) will have some very bad
surprises," he said.
U.S.
President George W. Bush and his government "didn't put the
current Iraqi regime in place and cannot therefore topple it simply
because they have decided to."
Bush
repeatedly threatened to launch a military campaign to overthrow the
regime in Baghdad, which he accuses of allegedly developing weapons of
mass destruction.
Meanwhile,
Iraq warned Friday that U.S. forces would be walking to their own
graves if the "cowboys" in Washington unleashed a military
campaign against Baghdad, amid growing concern from key U.S. allies
that this might happen.
"The
Iraqi people ... will make Iraq the graveyard of U.S. attackers and
leave their bodies to be devoured by wild animals," the official
Al-Iraq newspaper said.
"The
Iraqi people will ... not disarm ... They will go to the end to bring
victory or die as martyrs.
"We
swear that the (U.S.) administration of evil will be defeated and will
be confounded and dishonored for eternity," the daily said.
Bush's
administration "adopts the law of the jungle, which is the way of
the cowboys, who recognize neither international law nor divine
law."
Saddam
warned in a speech to the nation Thursday, August 9 that a U.S. strike
would be met with bloody consequences, saying U.S. servicemen who
tried to attack Iraq would be "buried in their own coffins with
their sick dreams."
The
White House, for its part, responded by saying all options were on the
table and demanded that Iraq comply with UN weapons inspectors.
UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan said Saddam's address sounded as though
his country was not "giving an inch," adding that Saddam's
call for the United Nations to live up to its obligations was
"not new".
But
Ath-Thawra, mouthpiece of the ruling Baath party in Baghdad, urged the
United Nations Friday to "take a courageous and sincere
initiative to settle its differences (with Baghdad) by cutting the
ground from under Washington and its bellicose intentions."
London's
Independent newspaper, quoting senior defense and diplomatic sources,
reported Friday that British Ministers and government officials have
warned Washington that launching a war to topple Saddam Hussein would
"contaminate" crises in Afghanistan, Israel and Kashmir.
The
warning came as The Times reported that British Prime Minister Tony
Blair faced increasing pressure from his own Labor Party and trade
unions not to back any U.S. strike.
Britain
is Washington's closest military ally, and it is believed that Bush
would call on London's help in any campaign.
British
ministers and government officials also have serious reservations
about Bush's call for a regime change in Baghdad because they say no
alternative set-up has been identified, according to The Independent.
They
fear Britain could be left to lead a huge stabilization force for
"up to five years" in a post-war Iraq.
However,
Richard Perle, head of the Pentagon's defense policy board, added in
Friday's edition of London's Daily Telegraph: "I have no doubt he
(Bush) would act alone if necessary. But he will not be alone when the
time comes.
"Neither
the President nor the British Prime Minister will be deflected by
Saddam's diplomatic charm offensive, the feckless moralizing of
'peace' lobbies or the unsolicited advice of retired generals,"
Perle said.
In
Tokyo, meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told a
meeting of five former Japanese premiers that Washington should
exercise restraint, according to reports.
German
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told Bremen's Weser-Kurier newspaper:
"We have no new analysis proving that Iraq has weapons of mass
destruction."
German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, for his part, ruled out Friday any
German participation on attacking Iraq.
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