MADRID/GAZA, 22 February 2003 — The hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon poses a far greater regional threat than Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa warned in an interview published yesterday. Moussa told the Spanish newspaper El Pais that more than a decade of UN sanctions and arms inspections in Iraq meant Saddam was “much weaker than he was in 1990 and doesn’t constitute a threat” to the Middle East.
“The serious and chronic danger for this region comes from the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the irresponsible, aggressive policies of the Sharon government,” he said, in comments translated into Spanish. Moussa pointed out that UN Security Council Resolution 687 called for the elimination of weapons of mass destruction in the entire Middle East region — not just Iraq.
“Everyone knows Israel possesses many weapons (of mass destruction),” he said. “It’s a scandalous example of double standard. There’s a lot of attention to the possibility that Saddam could possess weapons of mass destruction, yet it’s accepted that another country in the region should have them. Israel is allowed to carry out violent acts with complete impunity that no other country in the world could get away with. Israel can ignore Security Council resolutions,” the Arab leader said.
Meanwhile, Islamic Jihad yesterday denied the charges against eight Palestinians indicted in the United States and said one of the alleged leaders arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation was not even a member of the organization. The charges announced by US Attorney General John Ashcroft against eight suspected leaders of the group, four of whom were arrested, “are false and we reject them,” Islamic Jihad official Khaled Al-Batsh told AFP in Gaza City.
