26_September [Archives:2004/705/Press Review]

15 Jan 2004
Main headlines
– Strict measures to be taken against those who monopolize or manipulate prices
– The president: Democracy and human rights conference reflected the high status of Yemen and the good appreciation it entertains
– A security agreement between Yemen and Lebanon, Turkey, Italy and India
– Electronic system at the ministry of interior for facilitating citizens' and tourists' dealings
Columnist Ahmed Nasser al-Shareef says in an article the great political and material price some Arab countries are paying in return for the temporary silence of the American administration and lessening the pressures on them in addition to Arab rulers fear from keeping pace with the changes the world is witnessing today, especially in relation with peoples participation in decision-making prove to a great extent correctness of what some observers thought that president Saddam Hussein and his regime were right in their confrontation with the west and not yielding to demands of the American administration, represented in enabling them governing destinies of the Arab peoples politically, economically, culturally and socially.
If hold a comparison between stands of the former Iraqi regime in facing the west and languid stands of some Arab regimes as regards issues of their peoples, we would find out that president Saddam Hussein was patriotic in the stark meaning of the word despite the policy of tyranny against his people and problems with his neighbours that accompanied his regime. Were it not for the grave mistake he had committed in the second Gulf war when he fired a number of missiles at the Zionist entity, his destiny would not have been this severe and unexpected end. It is the Jews who have decided to get rid of him and end his regime sine the landing of the first Iraqi missile in Tel Aviv. The American administration is nothing but an implementer in its surrogate war instead of Israel. Although the American administration had managed to convince some Arab countries that Saddam Hussein posed a threat against them in order to win their sympathy and stand by it for getting rid of Saddam Hussein and his regime which is a scenario that had been actually implemented with an Arab backing.
After the invasion of Iraq and occupying it facts began to be revealed and those facts made those who had believed the American administration fall in a kind of bewilderment, including those Iraqis who were forming an opposition to Saddam and his regime. After the capture of Saddam Hussein and considering him a POW not a war criminal has made many sides reconsider their calculations, thinking that sending Saddam to court as a war criminal may explode facts and scandals many cannot bear, including the American administration itself.
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[archive-e:705-v:13-y:2004-d:2004-01-22-p:press]