Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Monday urged oil-producing countries to cut oil output by half to protest against Israel and the United States to show solidarity with the Palestinians.
"Oil exporters, including Iraq, should immediately decrease production of their oil by 50 percent and directly deprive the United States and the Zionist entity (Israel) of the other half" until the Arab nation's demands in solidarity with the rights of Palestinians are met, Saddam said in a televised address to Iraq and the Arab nation.
Saddam also suggested that oil producers allocate a quota of the exported oil to those countries "that express understanding or support for Arab rights."
He called on the Arabs to take a collective stance in this regard, while warning that "if anyone of them deviates, he would be described and treated by the Arab nation as abandoning his duties regarding his nation and its national security."
Stressing Iraq's call for using oil as a weapon against Israel and the United States, Saddam said that "oil is not a tank, a jet fighter or a cannon, but it can be used as a weapon, when the muzzles of the cannons, tanks and jet fighters are not working, or are meant to be used."
"Oil should be used as a weapon that will come in succession in the battle, and not as an absolute alternative weapon," Saddam said, warning that Iraq may resort to other weapons to support the Palestinians.
Saddam blasted the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians and accused the Jewish state of using "water and food as a weapon" against the besieged Palestinians.
Saddam announced on April 8 an oil embargo against Israel and the United States, which, however, has since had little impact on the oil prices in the international market, and his call for an Arab oil embargo has gone unheeded.
Over 50 percent of Iraq's oil exports, which stand at some 2 million barrels a day before the oil embargo, flow into the US market.
On Sunday, an Iraqi cabinet meeting decided to offer an amount of 25,000 US dollars to each Palestinian house destroyed by Israeli forces in the Palestinian city of Jenin.
Iraq said last month that it had raised the amount of money offered to the relatives of each Palestinian killed in clashes with Israeli troops to 25,000 dollars from 10,000 dollars.
In addition to shipments of relief aids to the Palestinians, Iraq on April 10 decided to donate 10 million euros (some 8.8 million dollars) to support the Palestinian intifada (uprising) against Israeli occupation.
Iraq has also organized a 6.5-million-strong "Jerusalem Liberation Army" who vows to fight along with the Palestinians against Israel.
Over 2,000 people, mostly Palestinians, have been killed in the bloody clashes between Israeli troops and the Palestinians since the Palestinian intifada began in September 2000.
(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2002)
