Syrian Vice-President Abdel-Halim Khaddam said on Friday (March 8) that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had caused massive losses to Iraq because he put his own ambitions before those of his people.
Speaking of the “arrogance and greed” which he said had blinded the man who could have saved Iraq, Khaddam said that Saddam was now a gentle lamb pleading peace and giving concessions, not the giant he had previously declared himself.
In an apparent reference to Saddam’s use of Republican Guard units to quell popular unrest in several Iraqi cities, Khaddam said that Iraqis were “being killed twice, once by being thrown into this war, then by slaughter for rejecting the result.” Khaddam hailed a pact signed on Wednesday (March 6) by Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, which envisages a Gulf security force of Egyptian and Syrian troops. He said countries that set up a new Arab order would build Arab strength and pave the way for joint action, adding that there was no room in the world except for the powerful.