IRAQ: In a defiant speech yesterday marking the anniversary of the revolution which brought his Ba'ath party to power, the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, said the US and its allies would not be able to topple his government. Michael Jansen reports.
In a speech filled with religious and historical references, President Saddam asserted: "You will never defeat me this time. Never! Even if you come together from all over the world, and invite all the devils as well to stand by you."
He insisted that the Iraqi people was well-prepared and equipped to defend the country against a any military assault. Saddam has ruled Iraq for 23 years.
The US President, Mr George Bush, has branded Iraq as part of an "axis of evil", accused Baghdad of developing arms of mass destruction and said he would use "all tools" at his disposal to achieve "regime change" in Baghdad.
The Iraqi leader did not mention Mr Bush by name or refer specifically to Washington. "The wind will blow away foreign sabre-rattling as the noise of an evil, covetous tyrant, the enemy of God," he said. "If Iraq has not already fallen, it is thanks to God."
The official daily, al-Thawra, however, accused the Bush Administration of "seeking to export its domestic weakness and cover up financial scandals and its failures in Afghanistan". This is a view shared by editorialists in many Arab capitals.
On Tuesday newspapers throughout the Arab world carried a rare interview President Saddam granted to Qatar's al-Sharq daily in which he said he sought to overcome the obstacles to full rapprochement with the Arab world, particularly Kuwait, liberated in 1991 by the US-led coalition from Iraqi occupation.
"We have said more than once that we want to turn a new page in the history of our inter-Arab relations," he stated. During the Arab summit in March, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah brought about a hesitant reconciliation between the Iraqi Vice-President, Mr Izzat Ibrahim, and the Kuwaiti Foreign Minister, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah. But relations remain cool.
Saddam observed: "Each time we try to improve relations with Kuwait the forces of evil hurry to block such a rapprochement."
Asked about the 605 citizens Kuwait claims went missing during the 1990-91 crisis, Saddam said the issue should be settled through "research and investigations free from external interference".
Iraq claims all Kuwaitis held by Baghdad went back to their country and that the entire store of gold, valued at $500m, confiscated from the Kuwaiti Central Bank has been returned.
Arab analysts remarked on the fact that Saddam did not mount a frontal verbal attack on the US and on the positive tone of his remarks on Kuwait to the Qatari paper.
In the view of Mr Wameed Nadmi, a professor at Baghdad University, yesterday's performance was both "self-confident and concilatory", indicating that the Iraqi President could be prepared to permit the resumption of UN weapons inspections if a time limit was fixed for such an effort and the punitive economic sanctions regime, imposed in 1990, could be suspended during the time the team was conducting its work.