Saddam calls Bush, Blair ‘warmongers’
Leader refuses to cow to ‘idiots,’ ‘despicable dictators’
Unleashing a barrage of inflammatory rhetoric, Iraq firmly rejected George W. Bush’s ultimatum for Saddam Hussein and his sons to go into exile, and said only the ouster of the “warmongers” in Washington and London would save the world further catastrophes.
Iraq’s final response to the US president’s early Thursday deadline came in an internationally televised news conference by Foreign Minister Naji Sabri.
It followed a massive rally in Baghdad by gun- and rifle- wielding Iraqis, pledging allegiance to Saddam.
Sabri heaped insults on Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, calling them “idiots” and “despicable dictators,” who themselves should go into exile, rather than ask Saddam to do so.
While Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar was spared the brunt of the offenses, he was nonetheless classified as a member of the “war-hungry evil trio.”
Sabri mocked Washington’s alliance with Spain when the “the ignorant Mr. Bush does not even know if Spain is a monarchy or republic” a reference to the US president’s calling Aznar the president of his country at the Azores summit Sunday.
Sabri called the summit “a meeting of outlaws” and a reflection of “Bush’s frustration, isolation and failure which have pushed him off the cliff.”
Insisting that there was no question of Saddam resigning, Sabri said: “Iraq does not succumb to ultimatums and threats. We heard today millions of Iraqis in the street shouting that Iraq is Saddam and that Saddam is Iraq.”
Earlier Saddam appeared on television, dressed in full military uniform, to chair a Cabinet meeting. “The meeting stressed that Iraq and all its sons were fully ready to confront the invading aggressors and repel them,” said a statement.
“The wives and mothers of those Americans who will fight us will weep blood, not tears,” Saddam’s elder son, Udai, said, in a statement released by his office, which killed any hope that he, his younger brother, Qusai would leave Iraq to spare the country.
Bush and Blair, Sabri told the news conference, had pushed the United Nations “into suicide,” eroding its ability to enforce peace and solve international crises.
Sabri said another proof of the UN’s eroding credibility was the abrupt withdrawal from Baghdad on Tuesday of the world body’s entire staff, including the weapons inspectors.
“Iraq’s 26 million people are not a priority for the United Nations, but the 100-some inspectors are,” he said.
Sabri argued that a US-war on Iraq was not only about the removal of Saddam from power or a hunt for weapons of mass destruction, which he insisted Baghdad no longer possessed, but an implementation of an “American-Zionist plot to control Iraq, topple the regimes and reshape the Middle East to suit Israel’s interests.”
“This is the culmination of the plot, which began 13 years ago,” he said, referring to the US intervention in the Gulf after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990.
Statements coming out of Washington Tuesday appeared to offer credence to claims that Washington was out for the region’s oil wealth, not its welfare. The White House said US- led troops would enter Iraq to hunt for weapons of mass destruction even if Saddam and his sons bowed to the ultimatum, which expires at 0100 GMT, or 48 hours after Bush’s delivered his warning.
“If Saddam were to leave, American forces and coalition forces, would still enter Iraq,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. About 300,000 US and British troops are gathered around Iraq waiting for the order to launch a military assault on Baghdad.
Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, along with other top aides, held a meeting to prepare for “a possible war,” Fleischer said.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said 45 nations backed the United States in the coalition that may soon go to war. Powell said 30 countries ? which have offered troops, support, overflight rights and logistical assistance were willing to be named publicly, while 15 wanted to remain anonymous at present.
Pressed by reporters to name the supportive governments, US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher listed 30. They included such remote countries like Ethiopia and Eritrea, which are unlikely to influence the overwhelming anti- war camp led by France, Russia and Germany.
French President Jacques Chirac continued to hold his ground in opposing Bush, warning Washington not to flout the will of the international community.
“There is no justification for a unilateral decision to resort to war,” Chirac said. “Iraq today does not represent an immediate threat that justifies an immediate war.”
Chirac did acknowledge that disarming Iraq was “necessary” and a change in government in Baghdad would be “desirable.”
Chirac’s statement came after diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis broke down Monday, prompting Washington to threaten to go it alone in Iraq.
Bush, in his warning to Saddam, criticized Paris and Moscow, without naming them, for dooming a resolution that would have provided international cover for the use of force: “These governments share our assessment of the danger but not our resolve to meet it.”
But Chirac said that Bush’s plans did not reflect the will of the international community, saying France’s stance was “shared by the large majority of the international community.”
“Recent debates have shown the Security Council was not inclined, given the current circumstances, to sanction a hasty step toward war,” the French president said.
He then warned Washington against ignoring countries like France, saying: “Freeing oneself from the legitimacy of the UN and favoring force over law would be to take on a heavy responsibility.”
Meanwhile, Blair, Bush’s closest ally, battled in Parliament to subdue a rebellion that has seen three government ministers resign. |
