Iraq's number two Ezzat Ibrahim said Sunday his country had drawn up its reservations over the final communique from the weekend Arab summit in Cairo, the official Iraqi news agency INA reported.
"Iraq has drawn up its reservations on the communique," said Ibrahim, vice chairman of Iraq's decision-making Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), the agency said.
"Iraq's position on the Palestinian cause is clear: Iraq calls for efforts towards the liberation of Palestine by a jihad (holy struggle). It is only by a Jihad that we can recover Arab rights in Palestine and in the other occupied Arab territories," Ibrahim said.
"The call to jihad does not mean an immediate declaration of war, without preparing for war. It means the mobilisation of the potential of the Arab nation in all domains to counter the plans of the Zionist enemy and restore Arab rights," he added.
"Jihad begins with the faith, moves through the mobilisation of all Arab capacities in all domains and the reorganisation of society and its preparation and ends up through recourse, if need be, to military force," said Ibrahim, regarded as number two to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
"Renouncing jihad draws us away from Islam and from the faith. That is why I consider that the meetings at the summit should have stayed open to monitor the evolution of the situation until such time as we get over the current crisis," he said.
"Despite my respect for all (the Arab leaders present in Cairo), I observed that the vision of the capacity of the Arab nation was limited and the understanding of those capacities was not what it should have been," Ibrahim added, with a warning about the expansionist aims of Israel.
"The Zionist entity ... will target Iraq and Saudi Arabia and others (Arab countries) tomorrow. It will seek to drag in all that features on its grand map. If the Arabs don't stand together as one man, other lands and other rights will be lost," he warned.
At the opening of the summit Saturday, Ibrahim called on the Arab countries to proclaim a jihad against Israel to free the occupied Arab lands -- BAGHDAD (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
