Below is an excerpt from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's speech in which he says Iraq will follow a recommendation by the Iraqi parliament calling for Baghdad to halt cooperation with the UN. The speech, made to mark the seventh anniversary of the Gulf war, was broadcast by Iraqi TV on 17th January.

... Almighty God is digging pits along the Americans' path. These dark and covered pits may get deeper with the passage of time, especially whenever their nervousness and disappointment exacerbate.

Day by day, they will retreat and vacate the peak which they thought they had reached when they dared to attack the beloved city of Baghdad - the city that has remained impregnable to foreign aggression throughout history - with their bombs and missiles.

Therefore, they have to reconsider their position carefully and think again about what they could do so that the unfair sanctions against Iraq come to an end.

They should not be led to the illusion, or deceive themselves once again, and imagine that what they failed to achieve through malice, deception and charlatanism, can be achieved through a military aggression because they tried such an aggression at the beginning, and on more than one occasion.

They thought, before or after that, that political chicanery, through the blockade and plotting in the dark, may lead to what they wish would happen.

They should realize this. This is not a threat, because we have fought their aggression over the last eight years and we know their power and ability to inflict harm, just as we assume that they are aware of the capability of great Iraq and how God cares about it.

We do not want to fall into the same kind of misjudgment which they have fallen into, and compete with them over slow understanding. What we want is only to warn so that we do not embarrass our enemy, because embarrassment is not our goal or objective.

Therefore, we say that Iraq - people, leadership and representative bodies, and on all levels - is determined irrevocably to wage the greater jihad [holy war] for the lifting of the blockade.

Unless the UN Security Council decides to fulfil its obligations towards Iraq as stipulated in the unfair resolutions, which it adopted itself without Iraq's participation as reciprocal obligations of the Council, then Iraq is determined to take a stand that conforms with the recommendations of the people's representatives in the National Assembly, and will take responsibility for such a position.

This is because there is no way or alternative other than this position ...

Source: Iraqi TV, Baghdad, in Arabic 0800 gmt 17 Jan 98

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