Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Monday called on Arab oil exporters to halt sales to the United States and Israel as well as cut their exports in half.
Saddam spoke in a national televised address less than a month after he declared he was
cutting off Iraq's oil exports for 30 days or until Israel withdraws from Palestinian territories, an announcement that led to an immediate hike in world oil prices. Other Arab states refused to follow Saddam.
He said Arabs should "immediately decrease the production of their oil for export by 50 percent and ... deprive the U.S. and Zionist entity of the other exported half."
Saddam scoffed at Arabs who had criticized his earlier call and said "oil is not a tank or a plane to be used as a weapon." During the last weekend, the Saudi foreign minister made such comments.
"If oil is not a weapon while we have it, what else can we use to face the ambitious powers?" Saddam said in his speech Monday. "We should use oil as a companion weapon and not as an alternative to other weapons."
He also suggested allocating more oil to countries that support "Arab rights" and less to those that "adopt negative stands against us."
Saddam on Monday also called on Arab workers at ports, airports and rail depots to refuse to handle tankers, vessels and planes carrying oil and goods to "hostile countries." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
