Al-Balagh [Archives:2003/696/Press Review]

16 Dec.2003.
Main headlines
– A source discloses to al-Balagh reasons behind the human rights minister's cancellation of her visit to America
– America senator accuses Saudi Arabia as the major financier of al-Qaeda after September events
– Saddam Hussein capture, would it open the door of more comprehensive and stronger resistance?
– Volume of Saudi-Yemeni exchange of trade; YR37 billion, 980 million

The newspaper's political editor says it is normal that reports of capturing Saddam Hussein at the hands of the American occupation forces arouses many questions , some dealing with the event itself and some about its results and consequences. Away from what it should and what shouldn't there remains the question about post-Saddam arrest Iraq in that whether by the arrest of Saddam America has ended cards of the political game and the American soldiers have begun preparing for departure or that the White House would surprise the international community with the decision of staying for a longer period? Of course it is not difficult for the White House to find the justification or trick for that.
If the American forces did mot leave Iraq how would the situation in it be? The writer says in case the coalition forces decided to stay the success achieved by the occupying troops would confirm it would be an introduction to a bigger failure even if that success represented a card for Bush to play in elections propaganda. But continuous rise in number of American soldiers killed in Iraq would affect negatively Bush's stance inside the United States. The event's strategy inside Iraq it would be a better situation for the resistance that would be logically fiercer for many reasons. Among those reasons is that Saddam Hussein's continuous being out of the reach of the American troops was giving American politicians an opportunity to link between the resistance in Iraq and Saddam Hussein and to intensify the claim that resistance operations are connected to the person of Saddam.
The arrest of Saddam has made the occupation forces the possibility of linking resistance to Saddam supporters and closes the door before the interim governing council to adopt the pretext of the occupation policy and moreover the absence of Saddam may open the chance for a comprehensive resistance.

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