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Saddam hits Gulf neighbors: they sold their souls |
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August 9, 2000
BAGHDAD (AP) - President Saddam Hussein kept up Iraq's drumbeat of criticism of its Gulf neighbors Tuesday, saying they had "sold their souls" to the United States and Israel. Saddam's nationally televised speech followed several days of anti-Kuwait editorials in Iraq's state-controlled press. Last week was the 10th anniversary of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. The U.S.-led Gulf War forced Iraq to retreat from Kuwait, and also strengthened military ties between the West and Kuwait and other Gulf states. "Whatever (Gulf states) find salable they have sold to the United States and Zionism.... It is they who have sold their souls and have appointed (the occupying foreigner) to rule over everything," Saddam said in the address marking the end of Iraq's 1980-1998 war with Iran. "May evil befall them, for evil indeed are the deeds they do," he said, naming Saudi Arabia but not directly mentioning Kuwait. Monday, the newspaper Babel, owned by Saddam's eldest son, warned Kuwaiti rulers that Iraq is still capable of teaching them "an additional lesson." Iraq has failed to mend fences with Gulf countries, particularly Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Saddam's remarks Tuesday were the harshest since the end of the 1991 Gulf War. Saddam was particularly angry over a U.S. and British no-fly zone over southern Iraq policed by warplanes stationed in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. |