Excerpts: 'Saddam' TV speech

'Leadership is steadfast'

The Arabic television channel Abu Dhabi TV has broadcast a recorded speech which it says is the voice of Saddam Hussein. It said he recorded the speech on 9 April, the day Baghdad fell to US forces.

Following are excerpts of the speech.

O Iraqis, we and you are not the only ones who have faced the difficult question of how - and for how long - should we fight, struggle, and engage in jihad (holy war) if the homeland is exposed to invasion and aggression, as your homeland is now?

We, a great people, are not the only ones to have offered generous sacrifices as ordained by God in defence of the homeland and the rights of God and the honourable people, which the corrupt and infidel enemy is trying to violate today.

We are confident about victory in the end and that God helps us as long as we have faith and resolve on the battlefield

Among other rights, people have the right to live freely in their homeland.

Almighty God protects these rights. God curses those who violate these rights.

The conclusive result in such a case is the victory of the people of the homeland on the enemy invaders and the enemies of God and the victory of the faithful ones on the corrupt ones, irrespective of how long the conflict lasts and the forms it takes.

The period of occupation is relatively shorter than the period of freedom in the homelands, despite the force and intentions of the occupiers.

If you wish to seek assurance about your leadership, it is steadfast and there is nothing that can shake it either now or in the future

This is the correct and clear historical assessment of every occupation, invasion, and aggression

We, as people and as an army, have said it, and I and my brothers in the leadership have said it before you, that we - this generation - are determined to earn the reward and honour of the position of defending our homeland and principles until the end that is ordained by God.

We are confident about victory in the end and that God helps us as long as we have faith and resolve on the battlefield.

We and the leadership have committed ourselves to this, relying on God.

Let everyone in whose heart faith becomes shaken or weak and whose memory becomes weak know, and let everyone tell the others, that in order to come to an end, hardship needs patience.

The greatest danger can only be posed by the invaders and those who have ulterior motives if the patient faithful ones become shaky in a way that disrupts their patience and jihad. Remember this, O wise Iraqis.

If you wish to seek assurance about your leadership, it is steadfast and there is nothing that can shake it either now or in the future, just as it has always been.

Your leadership relies on the most sublime characteristics of the strong and the lofty values, but strength and success are granted only by God.

God is great; long live our glorious nation, its fedayeen in Iraq and the big Arab world.

God is great; long live the mujahid Iraqi army of the immortal book. Long live Iraq; long live Palestine free and Arab.