Saddam Hussein accuses Iran of continuing its aggression

On the occasion of the 11th anniversary of the end of the Iranian - Iraqi war, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Sunday accused Iran of continuing its aggressions against Iraq and made "covert" threats against Iran, a stand which was denounced by Tehran and attributed it to Hussein's feelings of "failure and insult."

Hussein said: "Despite all repeated calls to stay away from evil things and the call of peace advocated by Iraq, the slogans of aggression continued from the Iranian side."

He blamed Iran for "carrying out aggressive raids against targets in the depths of Iraq as well as using missiles for the same purpose," in reference to repeated Iranian attacks against bases of the Iranian opposition who are stationed in the Iraqi territories.

Hussein stressed that Iraq "has released all the Iranian prisoners after the halting of the war, while until now Iran is keeping thousands of Iraqi prisoners, some of which the Iranian authorities even refuse to register with the International Committee of the Red Cross, adding, "Our prisoners are receiving all sorts of torture and pressures as well as killing inside the prison cages."

Baghdad says that its prisoners in Iran number 13,000 while Tehran stresses that 2,806 of its soldiers are still prisoners.

The Iraqi president also said that, "Iraq had kept civil and war planes in Iran," adding that Iran did not return these planes.

Baghdad says it kept some 115 warplanes and 33 civil plans in Iran during the Gulf War in order to protect them from the bombardment of the allied troops. Iran, for its part, said it only has 22 planes and expressed readiness to return them if it is requested by the UN to do so.

Iraq on July 18, 1988 approved UN Security Council resolution 598 which called for a ceasefire and return to the internationally-recognized borders between Iraq and Iran. Yet, the two countries have not restored normal relations and have diplomatic relations on the level of charge de affairs.

Meanwhile, the speech made on Sunday by the Iraqi president raised a violent response in Tehran. The Iranian news agency, IRNA, quoted the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Hamid Rida Asifi, as saying that "Saddam Hussein is seeking out of these words to hide a series of his defeats. He does not hesitate in forging history. He suffers the consequences of two wars (with Iran and with Kuwait) and peoples of the region know well this sort of behaviour. It seems that he is not ready to give up his intransigence."

The Iranian spokesman also accused Baghdad of obstructing the question of the prisoners of war, saying, "The Iraqi authorities have foiled at the last moment bilateral talks recently held with the Iranian delegation in Baghdad."

The Iranian spokesman called on the Iraqi president to "resort to the voice of reason and take steps that will be conducive to settling problems pending between the two countries and establish good neighborly bilateral relations."