Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has called for Egypt and Jordan to break ties with Israel regardless of their peace treaties with the Jewish state, newspapers reported on Saturday.
"Arabs who have not yet broken with the Zionist entity are called upon to do so ... rapidly because their position has become more difficult after the call of the Islamic summit," he said.
The summit in Doha on November 12-13 "invited" Muslim countries to break ties with Israel in retaliation for its killings of Palestinians.
Saddam implicitly criticized Egypt and Jordan, asking whether "those who say we cannot break with Israel because of the (peace) treaties have turned into colonies of the Zionist entity?."
Several Arab states have severed ties with Israel since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian clashes in late September, leaving only Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania who have maintained their relations.
Egypt signed a peace treaty with the Jewish state in 1979 and Jordan, another "frontline" state in the Middle East conflict, followed suit in 1994.
Saddam also renewed his call for a jihad, or Muslim holy war, against Israel and criticized its Arab neighbors for not allowing Arab fighters to be deployed in their territories.
"Let those who do not dare fight at least allow others onto the battlefield," said the president, whose country says more than six million Iraqi volunteers have come forward to fight alongside the Palestinians -- BAGHDAD (AFP)
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