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'A desert cemetry for US, UK'
18/02/2003 13:06 - (SA)
Dubai - Iraq will turn its deserts and borders into a cemetery for US and British troops if they invade, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri warned in an interview published on Tuesday.
"We will fight with all our means and we will transform the desert and the borders of Iraq into a cemetery for the invaders," Sabri told Asharq al-Awsat.
He said that in the 1920s Iraqis had "beaten the British army using basic weapons, sticks, knives and swords.
"They killed more than 50 000 and their cemeteries spread around Baghdad and other Iraqi towns bear witness to this.
"This time the cemeteries will be in the desert because they will not be able to reach the cities of Iraq thanks to our courageous people," said Sabri.
Iraq was "preparing to fight an attack as if it could happen within the hour," he added.
Britain finally took all of Iraq from the Turks in 1918 and held it under international mandate from 1920 until full independence in 1932.
Sabri, who spoke to the paper in Cairo where he attended a weekend meeting of Arab foreign ministers on the Iraq crisis, said Arab countries could avert war.
"If Arab countries decide to prevent war, they can do it," he said.
"If these countries refrain from taking part in the war or offering facilities to the aggressor, Washington will not be able to reach Iraq and will achieve none" of its aims. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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