Kuwait rejected his unprecedented apology for invading their country in 1990.
"He must apologize to the Iraqi people first for dragging them into wars that wasted their resources and apologize to the State of Kuwait by telling the truth and returning the prisoners," Kuwait’s Information Minister Sheik Ahmed Fahd Al Ahmed Al Sabah was quoted as saying by the Kuwaiti News Agency.
Kuwait has been pressing Iraq to account for 605 people, mostly Kuwaitis, who disappeared during Iraq’s seven-month occupation. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw seemed to share Kuwait’s concern.
"They have messed about. You know how much they have identified since than? Just three. It means there are still 602 people we know nothing about," he told British television.
MISSING KUWAITIS
Saddam Hussein did not mention the missing Kuwaitis in his statement read on Iraq Television by his information minister, Saturday, December 7, but suggested the invasion was most likely not appreciated by "God."
"We apologize to God for any action that may anger the Almighty, if such an action took place in the past, unbeknownst to us but considered to be our responsibility, and to you (Kuwaitis) we apologize on this basis as well," he said.
"O, you brothers, what we wish for is what we are working to achieve for your brothers in Iraq: to live free, without foreign control of your destiny, will, decisions, wealth, present and future," the Iraqi leader added.
AVOID "INVASION"
Analysts point out that Saddam Hussein avoided the word "invasion" in describing what he did to Kuwait and that he sought to blame the United States and Kuwaiti leadership.
He accused Kuwaiti leaders of "conspiring against Iraq and interfering in its internal affairs under foreign supervision," an apparent reference to the U.S. which he said was looking for "agents" for American oil companies.
"Doesn’t any Iraqi or Kuwaiti have the right to say … `why don’t the believers, loyalists and holy warriors get together with their counterparts in Iraq under the tent of their creator — instead of the tent of London, Washington and the Zionist entity’ …," he said.
ISRAEL CONCERNED
His words "Zionist entity" were expected to lead to further tensions within Israel, where the army has been boosting security for possible Iraqi attacks ahead, and during, a possible war against a U.S.-led coalition.
The Iraqi leader’s statement came on the eve of the day that about 12,000 pages and compact disks apparently denying Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, were due to arrive at the United Nations in New York.
In his weekly radio address Saturday, December 7, U.S. President George W. Bush said that he will judge Iraq on the facts. Bush stressed that the U.N. inspectors in Iraq "have not the duty nor the obligation" to find these weapons.
"FULL VIEW"
"It is not enough for Iraq to merely open doors for inspectors," said President Bush. "Compliance means bringing all requested information and evidence out into full view, to show that Iraq has abandoned the deceptions of the last decade."
Meanwhile American diplomats continued to prepare for war, amid reports that several countries, including Hungary, will be asked to train opponents of the Iraqi regime.
In Budapest, the Hungarian Defence Ministry confirmed that it expects thousands of Iraqi’s to be trained by the American military in Hungary.
NEW ADMINISTRATION
Most of them are said to learn how to take part in an Iraqi administration after Saddam Hussein is overthrown. Although Ministry officials add the program "was not yet formalized", they expected the first batches of over 2,000 Iraqi’s to arrive in January and February.
In total four thousand people are said to be involved in the operation. Defence Minister Ferenc Juhasz visited the area around the U.S. military base in the village Taszar near Croatia this week, amid reported concern among locals that the Iraqi presence could lead to terrorist attacks on Hungarian soil.
HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER
Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy told BosNewsLife recently that his country wanted to take a more active role in the war against terrorism, amid criticism that his country did not kept its promises since it joined NATO in 1999.
And officials in Hungary and other countries seem convinced that it will take more than an apology for Saddam Hussein to avoid all out war.
