|
Speech: Saddam seeks Arab support
24/03/2003 18:13 - (SA)
Cairo - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's speech on Monday was crafted not only to boost his country's resistance to the US-British invasion, but also to curry favour in the Arab world, analysts say.
The mention of Palestine in the speech, beamed across the Arab world by satellite TV, was particularly well-chosen, hitting a sensitive note with Arab opinion as Saddam wound up with the words "long live Palestine, Arab and free," Egyptian novelist Gamal Ghitany said.
"It's quite smart, Saddam is saying that even though Iraq is being attacked and destroyed, Iraq has not forgotten Palestine," said Ghitany, a former war correspondent.
"It certainly lifts the spirit of Arabs," he added, pointing to deepening frustration as governments are powerless to act, either against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip or the war being waged on Iraq.
"The timing of the speech is clever, it comes as the US forces are facing difficulty", said the novelist, referring to their losses in southern Iraq on Sunday.
The speech was "addressed first to the Iraqi army, which is resisting on the ground, and then the Iraqi people, which has become a party in the fight" as the coalition moves across urban areas, he said. Perception of US invincibility broken
"Then came Arab opinion and opinion in the rest of the world," he added.
"Regardless of the military aspect of the battle, which may be lost because of the overwhelming US force," the pictures of killed and captured US soldiers "has broken the perception of US invincibility," he indicated.
This gives weight to Saddam's call for the Iraqi army and population to resist, and for the Arab street to mobilise against war, said Ghitany.
"By naming and saluting the officers who led the fighting" that resulted in casualties and prisoners for the coalition in Nasiriyah and Umm Qasr, Saddam Hussein is "calling on other units to emulate them."
"Hit your enemy with force and precision," a uniformed and solemn Saddam said in his second address to the nation since the war was launched. "Cut their throats. The enemy is stuck in Iraqi territory. Hit it." Speech dotted with Koranic verses and references to Jihad
"The more they advance into Iraqi territory, the more they head into a dead end," added the Iraqi leader, reading slowly from a prepared text, also offering sceptics evidence he had survived at least the early stages of the war despite massive bombardment of presidential palaces and suspected hideouts across Iraq.
Ghitany also pointed out that Saddam's speech was dotted with Koranic verses and references to Jihad, or holy war, giving the fight a religious nature that has already been expressed in anti-war demonstrations in Muslim states.
The war has triggered massive demonstration in the Arab world, prompting police crackdowns as regimes fear destabilisation.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak expressed his concern on Sunday that the war was set to drag on in the light of unexpectedly strong Iraqi resistance.
"When we spoke with the Americans, they said the war would be short, but what I fear is that military operations will drag on, with the large casualty toll that would imply," Mubarak said. "All of this has repercussions for the region".
- AFX
|
News
