Iraq's official media on Saturday gave strong voice to doubts that the Arab summit in Cairo will succeed and urged a boycott of Israel and once more, a holy war or jihad to liberate Palestine.
"Any resolution not based on armed struggle against the Zionists will have no more effect than an aspirin which dissolves rapidly," said Babel, run by President Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday.
"The summit will not escape the narrow framework drawn up by the Sharm el-Sheikh summit .. and the treacherous regimes, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia will try to turn it away from the reason for which it was called," the daily said.
A holy war or jihad was needed to liberate Palestine, it added. Some 4.5 million Iraqis have reportedly volunteered to fight in an answer to a government call.
Uday was himself quoted in the press swearing vengeance against Israel which would "pay dearly" for the death of Palestinian civilians.
"The anger of the Arab people will stop only with the end of the Zionist entity," he said.
Deputy Information Minister Hamid Said urged Arab leaders to "throw off the burden" of the Sharm el-Sheikh summit which last week produced a ceasefire that fell apart in renewed bloodshed on Friday.
The Cairo meeting should "put an end to normalisation with the Zionist enemy and prepare for liberation" of the occupied territories," Said told the Al-Qadissiya newspaper.
Al-Irak, the daily of Kurds loyal to Baghdad, repeated the call and demanded "firmness in the face of the United States and Great Britain, the two enemies of the Arab nation."
Senior Iraqi official Saad Kassem Hamudi called in a televised interview for anti-Israeli protests in all Arab countries during the two-day summit which opened Saturday.
He said this would be a "people's summit" to press Arab leaders to adopt "a liberation strategy for Palestine, a return to the Arab boycott of Israel and the use of oil as a weapon in the fight," against Israel -- BAGDAD (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
