Every Palestinian family will want to sacrifice one child for the 25k bounty:
DJ Iraq Ups Payment To Palestinian Suicide Bombers' Families
03/12/2002
Dow Jones News Services
(Copyright © 2002 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
BAGHDAD (AP)--Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said Tuesday that Iraq has increased payments to families of Palestinian suicide bombers from $10,000 to $25,000.
President Saddam Hussein has been making such payments since Israeli-Palestinian clashes started in September 2000.
Meanwhile, Aziz said U.S. interests in the Middle East region would be damaged if Iraq is attacked.
"The United States knows well that if it wages an aggression on Iraq, then its interests in the Arab world will be threatened by the Arab people, not the regimes," Aziz was quoted as saying by the state-run al-Qadissiya newspaper on Tuesday. Aziz was speaking during an Arab conference held in Baghdad in solidarity with Iraq and the Palestinians.
Speculation has been growing that the U.S. military campaign against terrorism will turn next to Iraq. U.S. President George W. Bush has described Iraq as part of an "axis of evil" and warned Baghdad it would face unspecified consequences if it didn't allow U.N. weapons inspectors to resume their task of ensuring Iraq isn't stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.
Referring to such U.S. comments, Saddam said, "Iraq is not afraid of any threats and will not be affected by evil misdeeds."
Iraq's neighbors are cautioning the U.S. not to attack Iraq, fearing it will further destabilize a region where the U.S. is seen as pro-Israel and where protests are being staged over Palestinian-Israeli violence.
Syrian President Bashar Assad met Tuesday with Iraqi Vice-President Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri and Foreign Minister Naji Sabri for talks on the latest developments in the region and the U.S. threats against Iraq, the official Syrian news agency SANA reported.
Al-Douri had arrived in Damascus from Jordan, where he met with Jordanian King Abdullah II Sunday. According to a Jordanian palace statement, King Abdullah told the Iraqi: "A strike on Iraq will be disastrous for Iraq and the region as a whole and will threaten the security and stability of the Middle East."
(END) DOW JONES NEWS 03-12-02
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