SADDAM URGES ARABS TO 'RISE UP'
Geschrieben von Freddie am 18. Juli 2001 12:31:44:
Als Antwort auf: TURKEY READY TO FIGHT SADDAM IN KURDISTAN geschrieben von Freddie am 17. Juli 2001 18:24:24:
JULY 17, 2001 -- SADDAM URGES ARABS TO 'RISE UP' -- HUSSEIN USES HIS SPEECH TO
ATTACK ISRAEL AND THE UNITED STATES -- BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) --
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has urged Palestinians to intensify their
uprising against Israel. "Rise up, dear ones, for whom we are ready to
sacrifice anything," he said in a television address marking Iraq's national
day. "Say to your enemies, the enemies of our Arab nation who are the foul
Jewish usurpers, their covetous allies and all the colonialists and their object
servants: Stop abusing the Arab nation." Although he made no direct reference to
the United Nations sanctions imposed against Iraqi following the Gulf war
Hussein accused the U.S. and its allies of trying to "slaughter" the Iraqi
people. In the 30-minutes address -- commemorating the 1968 coup by the ruling
Baath Party -- he also avoided naming Arab countries opposed to him, as he has
done in the past. Instead, he referred to them as servants of the enemy. He said
Iraq will "eventually disappoint all its enemies." In an apparent reference to
the U.N. oil-for-food program, Hussein said Iraq will not depend on oil alone as
"a source of its power and endurance." "It certainly won't be a point of
weakness or a hole in the wall of our national bastion," he said. The program,
begun in 1996, allows Iraq to sell oil in order to buy food, medicine and
essential goods that are distributed to the Iraqi people under U.N. monitoring.
Hussein concluded the speech with a traditional attack on the U.S: "Long live
Iraq and long live Palestine. Down to Hell with all conspiracies and evil
schemes. Down with all the debased resolutions of America." Analysts said the
latter was a reference to Washington-led efforts to transform the UN embargo on
Iraq into "smart sanctions" targeting military imports. Saddam's speech came two
weeks before the 11th anniversary of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait -- which provoked
the Gulf war -- on August 2.