Put the heat on Saddam ....
canada.com
Despite Iraqi outrage, Emirates seeks support for its call for Saddam's exile
Canadian Press
Sunday, March 02, 2003
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Iraq poured scorn on the United Arab Emirates on Sunday for urging President Saddam Hussein to go into exile, but the small Persian Gulf state pressed ahead with the proposal, calling it the only way to avert war.
The king of Bahrain, a U.S. ally, said he backs the call for Saddam to go, the Emirates state news agency, WAM, reported Sunday. The Emirates also submitted its proposal to a gathering of Gulf countries Sunday, looking for their backing.
The proposal sparked an outcry at an Arab summit in Egypt on Saturday and Arab leaders refused to discuss it. The Emirates was the first Arab country to say openly that Middle East leaders should persuade Saddam to step down.
"Rejecting these ideas put forward by the UAE. is acceptance of the remaining option, which is war," Sheik Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Emirates information minister, said.
The Bahraini king, Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, met Sunday with the Emirates president in Abu Dhabi. Afterwards, he called the Emirates proposal "honest advice to the Iraqi leadership," acccording to WAM.
"It is the only Arab way out to protect Iraq and spare its people and the whole region the threats" of war, the agency quoted Sheik Hamad as saying. Bahraini officials were not immediately available for comment.
The Emirates was seeking support for its proposal Sunday among its fellow Gulf countries - where several states are already hosting U.S. troops that could be used in an invasion of Iraq.
Bahrain is host to the U.S. 5th Fleet.
Other Arab countries have rejected the proposal, saying they cannot meddle in Iraq's domestic affairs. But throughout the region, governments are divided on how to deal with Iraq and the threat of war.
The Emirates submitted its proposal at a ministerial meeting of the Gulf Co-operation Council in Doha, Qatar, on Sunday. It also plans to propose it at a gathering Wednesday of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, also in Doha.
Kuwait expressed its backing for the Emirati ideas. Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah said Sunday the proposal could offer "the way out" of the Iraq crisis, the official Kuwait News Agency reported.
Iraq - which has repeatedly said Saddam will not step down - vehemently derided the Emirates.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said Sheik Zayed's proposal must have originated from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
The proposal "found its way quickly to the garbage pail," Sabri told reporters Saturday. "There's not one honest Arab who will accept a message from Sharon to the summit."
He also took a personal swipe at Sheik Abdullah, who presented the proposal to the summit on behalf of his father, calling him a "Zionist agent child" who "spoke of matters over his head."
In a front-page editorial Sunday, Baghdad's popular Babil daily, run by Saddam's eldest son Odai, accused Sheik Abdullah of having "a Satanic U.S. heart and tongue."
© Copyright 2003 The Canadian Press
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