US Is Out To Destroy All Centers Of Arab Power

Saddam - US Is Out To Destroy All Centers Of Arab Power

Following are excerpts from an interview with Iraq's President Saddam Hussein conducted by Sayyid Nassar of the Egyptian opposition weekly Al-Usbou and published on Nov. 3. 2002

Nassar: "Mr. President, what exactly does the U.S. want from Iraq?"

Saddam: "The U.S. wants to destroy the centers of power in the Arab world, regardless of whether the center of power is in Damascus or Baghdad! Look around you and see what is happening in the region. See what is happening in southern Sudan, efforts to separate the south from the north and to influence our big sister Egypt, its national security, and the overall national security of the Arab nation!!" "Look and see what is happening in Algiers, see what happened and is still happening in Somalia and all the countries in the Horn of Africa. See what is going on in Palestine and what Sharon is doing to our Palestinian brothers. All this exposes the scope of the conspiracy against our Arab nation."

Nassar: "Mr. President, if we go from the general to the specific, what does the U.S. want from Iraq?"

Saddam: "The U.S. wants to impose its hegemony on the Arab world, and as a prelude it wants to control Iraq and then strike the capitals that oppose it and revolt against its hegemony. From Baghdad, which will be under military control, it will strike Damascus and Tehran. It will fragment them and will cause major problems to Saudi Arabia.
It is trying to create small entities controlled by safe-keepers working for the U.S., so that no country will be larger than Israel, quantitatively and qualitatively. This way the Arab oil will be under its control and the region, especially the oil sources after the destruction of Afghanistan will be under total control of the U.S. All these things serve the Israeli interests, and based on this strategy the purpose is to make Israel into a large empire in the area."
"Iraq's problem is that it opposes all these conspiracies, and the others do not understand that we are defending [them]. Everyone should know that no one will be safe from [the conspiracies] that are being hatched now against Iraq. All, from the point of view of the U.S. and Israel, are the same and what will happen to us, will happen to the others later."

Nassar: "Mr. President, let's go back to where we started: What exactly does the U.S. want from Iraq?"

Saddam: "It wants an Iraq that accepts the American political and geographical hegemony over Arab resources. It also wants an Iraq that acknowledges the Zionist existence and its control over Palestine. Furthermore, it wants an Iraq free of the pan-Arab ideology, an Iraq that would agree to destroying the Arab League and establishing a Middle-East organization. It wants a non-Arab Iraq [divided] into separate nations."