Arafat asks Saddam for help

The Iraqi News Agency has issued a declaration stating that Palestine Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has formally requested Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to ask Iraq “to intervene so as to put an end to the wild and zionist aggression against the Palestinian people”.

The Iraqi News Agency classified the message as being the result of “a serious situation in the occupied Palestinian territories caused by zionist aggression and blockades imposed by the zionist authorities against the movement of the Palestinian people and their officials"”

At the beginning of the Intifada in September 2000, Saddam Hussein declared that he was ready to “place an end to zionism” if the Arab countries did not defend the Palestinians against Israel.

Government sources in Iraq claim that there are seven million volunteers ready to fight against Israel.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru