The Iraqi parliament, meeting on Monday in a special session to discuss US threats against Baghdad, pledged its full support for President Saddam Hussein and his steps to defend the country.
MPs said in a statement released at the session’s end that they were ”fully behind the command of President Saddam Hussein and support all steps he has taken or will take in the future to defend the security of Iraq, its independence and its national regime.”
They blasted the ”aggressive policy of the American administration and Congress, engaged in a hostile campaign against Iraq to change its national regime and install a government in their pay.”
US plans to overthrow Saddam were ”illegal,” the Iraqi MPs said, adding that Washington had ”put itself above international law and the United Nations” and was imposing on the world the ”policy of force?.
”The lawmakers invited other parliaments in the Arab-Islamic world and peace-loving countries to ”defend the law and the UN charter, and denounce the practices and statements” of US leaders and senators.
Parliament will also send delegations to Arab and Islamic countries as part of an information campaign on the US threats, which represent a ”violation of the UN charter,” said Salemal-Qubaissi, head of the Iraqi parliament’s committee for Arab and international affairs.
Messages will also be sent to the US Congress, Qubaissi said, not ruling out the possibility of holding talks with senators ”if they were ready for a just and fair discussion?.
”The Iraqi people attached to the leadership, headed by President Saddam Hussein, are in the position to foil any attack or plot,” speaker Saadun Hammadi told the opening session of parliament.
The 90-minute session was attended by most of Iraq’s 250 MPs, around 20 of whom took the floor to urge neighbouring countries to oppose any facility their governments might lend to a US attack on the sanctions-hit country.
They also called for all borders to be opened to allow Arab volunteers who wanted to help defend Iraq to travel into the country.
US President George Bush has renewed a pledge to use ”all tools” at his disposal to oust Saddam, whom Washington accuses of developing weapons of mass destruction.
The prospect of US military action was further heightened after July 4-5 talks between Baghdad and the United Nations on the return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq broke down.
MP Qubaissi also played down the importance of three days of meetings in London by army officers in exile and Iraqi opposition leaders: ”It’s a valueless meeting that means nothing to the Iraqis?.
Former Iraqi officers in exile called on the country’s army on Sunday to topple Saddam and said they were setting up a war council to help do so.
The people taking part in the London meeting ”have no presence in Iraq and are elements bearing neither importance nor weight in Iraqi society,” Qubaissi told AFP. By meeting in London at the behest of the ”American administration and US and British intelligence agencies, they brought shame and humiliation on themselves because they lined up with the enemies of their people,” he said.
In Saudi Arabia, Al-Riyadh newspaper, which normally reflects the official Saudi government line and is considered close to the decision-making circles in Riyadh, urged Saddam to accept UN resolutions ”quickly and unequivocally” to spare the Iraqi people the catastrophe of another war.
”There are enough indications that war is coming very soon and no-one is capable of preventing it,” Al-Riyadh said.
”Only a (positive) response by the Iraqi government to the international terms and approving them through quick and unequivocal initiatives can prevent a major catastrophe for the future of Iraq and its people.”
Saudi Arabia, a key US ally whose military facilities are seen as essential for the success of any US campaign in the region, has repeatedly rejected a potential strike on Iraq. – Sapa-AFP