- DUBAI (AFP) - An Iraqi minister
threatened Israel with attack if it participated in any US-led military
action against the regime of President Saddam Hussein, in comments published
in an Emirati daily.
-
- "Iraq will deliver a deep blow to Israel that it
will not forget if it interferes in the war," Trade Minister Mohammed
Mahdi Saleh told the Al-Khaleej newspaper.
-
- Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner insisted Friday
that the Jewish state "is not involved in the US efforts."
-
- But he added his government was taking all precautions
to deal with any repetition of Iraq's Scud missile attacks during the 1991
Gulf war.
-
- The Iraqi trade minister warned US President George W.
Bush against pressing ahead with his threat to the UN General Assembly
Thursday to strike Iraq if it does not disarm.
-
- Washington should "study well the history of Iraq
before launching a strike on Baghdad," Saleh said.
-
- "Iraq will not capitulate and the Iraqi people are
ready to die and sacrifice themselves to defend their nation.
-
- "If the United States launches an aggression against
Iraq, all Arab peoples will be shaken from the (Atlantic) Ocean to the
Gulf," he added, saying solidarity between Arab countries would be
strengthened.
-
- Saleh blasted the United States for seeking "to
impose their hegemony ... to steal the wealth of Iraq and change its rebellious
regime."
-
- He said Washington was "supporting terrorism and
training terrorist elements on the ground to overthrow the regime in Baghdad."
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- http://www.arabia.com/afp/news/mideast/article/english/0,10846,287527,00
.html
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