Iraq dismissed Monday calls by Gulf leaders for Baghdad to show peaceful intentions to its neighbors, saying the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was merely pandering to the US administration.
"The position of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is that of the Saudi leaders, which mirrors that of the United States," said Ath-Thawra, mouthpiece of the ruling Baath party.
In their final summit declaration Sunday, Gulf Arab leaders invited the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to "prove its peaceful intentions towards its neighbors," especially Kuwait, which Baghdad occupied from August 1990 to February 1991.
"GCC statements over the past years have never deviated from the wishes of the US administration to the point where their content is known in advance," the paper said.
Mocking the GCC's political weight, Ath-Thawra said it was a "primitive assembly that recalls tribal alliances from the days before Islam".
"As is the case in tribal alliances where the say of the most powerful and richest tribe's sheikhs dominates, the Saudi government imposes itself on all other GCC members and their wishes," it said.
Baghdad's ties with the region have vastly improved this year, but Iraq remains at loggerheads with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the emirate that Iraqi forces occupied between August 1990 and February 1991 -- BAGHDAD (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
