Posted on 09/27/2002 5:45:50 AM PDT by Tancred
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday accused the United States of pushing to topple Baghdad's government in order to get its hands on the country's oil.
He said Washington, which has threatened Iraq with military strikes, was acting like "an arrogant cowboy".
"Do not imagine that they (Americans) will leave you alone because you are sitting on the (world's) number one oil reserve," Uday was quoted as saying on Thursday night by al- Shabab (youth) television which he owns.
"Our oil reserve exceeds that of Saudi Arabia by 25 percent and we are the world's number one (in oil reserves), but they do not speak about that so that it won't be said that the war is for oil," Uday said.
"The last barrel of oil on earth will be, God willing, an Iraqi oil barrel. So they will not leave you alone."
Iraqi figures say the country has a proven oil reserve of around 113 billion barrels and a probable reserve of 220 billion barrels.
British Petroleum figures say Iraq comes second after Saudi Arabia which has 262 billion barrels in proven reserves.
The United States has accused Iraq of developing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, and told it to disarm or face possible military force.
Iraq has offered to readmit U.N. arms inspectors seeking weapons of mass destruction.
After the 1991 Gulf War, U.N. inspectors spent seven years in Iraq destroying weapon stocks, but the United States and Britain say they did not find them all and that Iraq has acquired new ones since the inspectors left in 1998.
Iraq says it has no weapons of mass destruction.
Uday also accused the United States of separating the north from the rest of the country because of the mineral reserves there.
"Keep in mind that they had separated the north in this damned way because there is uranium and iron there, not to speak of sulphur and other materials," he added.
U.S. and British planes patrol no-fly zones set up in northern and southern Iraq after the Gulf War to protect Kurdish and Shi'ite Muslim populations. Iraq does not recognise the zones.
READY TO TALK WITH AMERICANS
The United States and Britain are pressing for a tough new U.N. resolution on Iraq.
Uday said Baghdad was ready to talk with Washington if it respected Iraq's sovereignty.
"If they (Americans) want to sit and talk after ensuring our full rights with respect to sovereignty and not in this reckless way, the way of the arrogant cowboy, we are ready, but if they raised their voice we would escalate our action," Uday said.
He added that Iraq was capable of repelling any U.S. attack.
"Let them come...At the end, God willing, disgrace will be theirs," Uday said.
U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said this week any invasion would target Baghdad's "dictatorial, repressive" government while attempting to spare the Iraqi people.
Commenting on the remarks, Uday said: "I hope this will be true that they spare the Iraqi people and do not hit their electricity, water, houses, schools, their children and the elderly people."
Oh, shut up.
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