Iraq's parliament held an emergency session on Wednesday with defiant chants in support of President Saddam Hussein.
"We'll sacrifice our blood and souls for Saddam," several legislators chanted.
Speaker Saadoun Hammadi told deputies that they should all rally behind their leader, dismissing U.S. threats to invade their country if he does not step down.
"Iraq is not the country that will accept what the U.S. administration has told it," Hammadi said. "We reject and denounce it and we are all standing together behind our leader, and we're ready to defend our land."
"The fate of invaders is the same -- failure and the curse of history," he said. "The people of Iraq, who gave us this responsibility by electing us as its representatives, stand today as one rank, as one voice, as one rifle against the criminal oppressive aggression of the U.S. and its allies."
(Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
