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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (22467)	1/12/1999 5:16:00 AM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

Saudi Arabia for First Time Urges Iraqis to Revolt (Update1) 1/11/99 7:39 Saudi Arabia for First Time Urges Iraqis to Revolt (Update1) (Add updated Brent crude price in 5th paragraph, and quotes from Iraq's Tariq Aziz in 14th-15th paragraphs) Riyadh, Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia for the first time ever urged the Iraqi people to overthrow President Saddam Hussein, the official Saudi Press Agency reported, increasing tension in the world's top oil-producing region. The statement is the first by an Arab state explicitly calling for the removal of the Iraqi president, and it comes after Saddam criticized Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt and accused the nations of supporting the U.S.-led military strike on Iraq last month. ''Since Saddam came to power in 1979 the Iraqi people have suffered from his despotic rule,'' said the political editor of the state-owned SPA, which is the official platform for Saudi government policy. The Iraqi people should ''revolt against the tyrant of Baghdad.'' The statements from Baghdad and Riyadh are attempts to influence the thinking of other Arab states before a Jan. 24 meeting in Cairo of the 22-member Arab League, which will seek a common policy on Iraq after last month's Operation Desert Fox. Iraq has been barred from the Arab League since its invasion of fellow member Kuwait in 1990. Crude oil traders are largely ignoring the growing tension in the region, where last week a U.S. warplane fired on an Iraqi air defense site in northern Iraq, the fourth such incident in two weeks. In London, Brent crude oil rose for a fourth day, climbing as much as 37 cents to $12.10 a barrel on the International Petroleum Exchange. Iraqi Strategy ''Any move within the Arab League position would be a huge victory for Saddam Hussein and a big embarrassment for the U.S.,'' said Mohammed Abduljabbar, a senior advisor to the Washington-based Petroleum Finance Co. ''Iraq is trying to embarrass the Saudi royal family in front of its people and so force them to make concessions in Cairo.'' The foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman -- met yesterday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to establish a common position on Iraq prior to the full Arab League meeting. The GCC made no official statement after its meeting. The Kuwait Defense Council has put its army on the highest state of alert after Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said Iraq had a ''historical'' claim over Kuwait. U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen warned Iraq about withdrawing recognition of Kuwait, the state-owned Dubai FM radio reported. He declined to comment on whether the U.S. and U.K. planned further military strikes on Iraq after the holy month of Ramadan, which is scheduled to conclude next week. Saudi Arabia said its fight is with Saddam's regime and not the Iraqi people, and to relieve their suffering Saudi's King Fahd proposed lifting the eight-year-old economic sanctions crippling the country. Such an action would include removing the ceiling on the amount of oil Iraq is allowed to export, SPA said. Details The proposal, which will be presented to the United Nations after it has been considered by the Arab League, would permit Iraq to buy and sell all goods except military equipment or material which could be used for military purposes. ''This may not affect Iraqi oil exports immediately, but if it leads to speeding up the importation of spare parts for the oil infrastructure, it could result in boosting Iraqi exports quicker than the market expects,'' Abduljabbar said. Iraq is allowed to export $5.2 billion of oil every six months to purchase food and medicine under an exception to sanctions imposed after the 1991 Gulf War, although it hasn't been able to reach that goal because of falling oil prices and the deterioration of its oil infrastructure. Meantime, Aziz said Iraq ''categorically rejects'' the Saudi initiative, the Iraqi News Agency said. ''We do not expect Saudi Arabia to make honest and positive proposals for Iraq,'' Aziz said. ''Iraq rejects all limitations on its independence and any Arab meeting which does not decide to lift totally the embargo and which does not condemn the aggression is not a true Arab meeting and does not express the will of the Arab nation.''