Attack on Iraq won’t be ‘a picnic’ warns Saddam

IRAQI President Saddam Hussein, in one of the few interviews he has given since the Gulf War, warned the United States and Britain that attacking Iraq would not be “a picnic” for their invading soldiers.

In the interview published yesterday, in the Egyptian weekly Al-Osboa, Saddam also appealed to his fellow Arabs to defend Iraq, saying that after the United States seized his nation, it also would seek to control Egypt, Syria and non-Arab Iran.

"Iraq is not like Afghanistan. This does not mean that we are stronger than the US, which has fleets and long-range missiles, but we possess faith in God, the country and the Iraqi people and, just as significant, the Arab nation," the Iraqi leader said.

"We will never make it a picnic for the American and British soldiers," he told the pro-Iraqi newspaper.

While the United States has said it wants to oust Saddam to eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, Saddam maintained in the interview that America's real design is to take control of Middle East oil as a way to serve the interests of its ally, Israel.

"The Arab oil will be under the US control and the region, especially where oil flows, will be under full American hegemony. All this serves

Israel's interest with the aim of turning it to a vast empire in the region,"

Saddam said.

US officials have consistently argued their goal is not to control Iraq's oil.

Much of the interview was Saddam's standard rhetoric, but the warning of US designs on other Arab States seemed an effort to shore up his credentials in the volatile region.

All Arab countries have said they oppose a unilateral US strike at Iraq, but some expressed readiness to support military action approved by the United Nations. Al-Osboa published two pictures of its reporter Sayed Nassar with Saddam one of the interview and the other of the two shaking hands.

The newspaper said the interview took just over two hours and was conducted at one of Saddam's presidential palaces on the outskirts of Baghdad, with Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz present.

Nassar made the trip from his hotel in Baghdad to the interview in three different government-owned Mercedes Benz, each with curtains over the side windows.

In the interview, Saddam said that Washington's plan was to first attack Baghdad, then other "rebellious Arab capitals" that oppose American control over the region.

"The United States wants to destroy the centres of power in all the Arab homeland. whether these are in Cairo, Damascus or Baghdad," he said.

He said that Iran also would be an American target, noting this would cause problems for oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

He said Washington wanted to split the Middle East into tiny entities ruled by "guards and watchmen" who serve the US. interests.

Explaining why Baghdad would be attacked first, Saddam said: "Iraq's problem is that it challenges these schemes while others don't realise that we are doing this for them."

Asked why the United States is not targeting North Korea, which has acknowledged it was developing nuclear weapons, Saddam said: "first because North Korea has no oil and, second, because North Korea is not an enemy to Israel, nor is it near its borders."

Saddam did not answer directly if Iraq was still holding Kuwaiti prisoners. He praised a recent attack in Kuwait by two Islamic radicals who killed one US Marine and wounded another.

"The Kuwaiti people are an Arab nation with faith in Arabism and the proof of that is the recent incident" against the Americans, Saddam said.

Saddam said he expected Iraq to avoid war because the US-British alliance would disintegrate.

"Time is in our favour, and we have to buy more time hoping that the US-British alliance might disintegrate because of ... the pressure of public opinion" in the United States and Britain, he said.

He scoffed at Iraqi opposition leaders who have US support, saying there are so few of them that "a Baghdad bus can contain more than their numbers."