IRAQ’S ruling Baath party on Monday called on Arab countries to
use petrol as a ”weapon” against Israel and the United States to
ensure the liberation of Palestinian land.
”Use oil as a weapon in the battle … otherwise it will become
a burden which will lead to (more) humiliation,” the party’s
national command said in a statement.
Arab oil producers, who account for half of world supplies, have
not used the oil card since the 1973 crisis, despite repeated calls
by Iraq and others to do so.
The statement branded the United States ”an enemy and a partner
of Zionism” and alleged that the Israeli military offensive in the
Palestinian territories ”was mounted in joint agreement with the
American administration”.
The statement called for the ”liberation of Palestine from the
Mediterranean sea to the Jordan” and the expulsion of all settlers –
a much harder line than the Arab peace initiative adopted last
Thursday which calls for Israeli withdrawal from land occupied in
the 1967 war.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said on Sunday that Arabs could halt
Israel’s military push in the West Bank by threatening economic
sanctions on the United States.
”If just two Arab countries used the economic threat against a
part of the world which only understands the language of its own
interests, the Israeli army would immediately withdraw from
autonomous areas,” Saddam was quoted as saying by Iraqi state television. – Sapa-AFP