Special Iraqi presidential envoy to Egypt; Aziz: Saddam will stay till last bullet
Iraq-Egypt, Politics, 1/14/2003

The Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Tareq Aziz, has stressed that President Saddam Hussein will stay in Baghdad until "the last bullet" because "the danger will be greater on Iraq if its President leaves," during a war, as Aziz said in conclusion of a visit to Algeria from which he moved to Tunisia where he handed President Zein al-Abidin Bin Ali a message from the Iraqi President.

Aziz said that Iraq is prepared for all possibilities, noting that the Tunisian president "stressed for me Tunisia's determination to continue working to dealing with the crisis ( between Baghdad and Washington) by political and diplomatic channels."

In the context of the diplomatic campaign Baghdad had announced to find out about the international position concerning the American threats and to clarify the Iraqi position, Egyptian and Iraqi sources said yesterday that the Iraqi president will send member of the revolution's council leadership, his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed, as a special envoy to Cairo in order to hold talks with President Hosni Mubarak and to hand him a message from President Hussein.

Meanwhile, an Iraqi official announced that thousands of volunteers in Jerusalem army, which was formed by the Iraqi president, joined since Sunday military training centers in Baghdad and other 6 provinces "to increase their fighting capability for any emergency." The Iraqi president held yesterday a meeting with high ranking military leaders in Iraq including Vice President Ezzat Ibrahim, his assistant Ali Hassan al-Majuid, the defense minister Sultan Ahmad Rasheed and the son of the Iraqi President Qusai.

On the other hand, the Iraqi health minister Omid Midhat Mubarak said yesterday that cancer rate increased in Iraq by 6 folds in comparison to the situation before imposing the UN sanctions on Iraqi in 1990. He called on the world organizations to find out the consequences of the sanctions and medicine deficiency which the UN sanctions committee refuses to be give to Iraq.

Previous Stories:
  Al-Ahram: Mubarak calls on Saddam not to provoke people against their governments   (1/2/2003)
  Egyptian parliament rejects attacking Iraq   (1/2/2003)
  Three tracks for Egyptian moves to prevent attacks against Iraq   (12/25/2002)

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