President Saddam Hussein is sure Iraq will defeat its enemies' schemes, following the shelving of US and British proposals to impose "smart" sanctions on Baghdad, official Iraqi newspapers reported Sunday.
"The enemies of Iraq have been defeated in all the previous battles," Hussein said in a meeting Saturday with Iraq's atomic energy commission and military industrialization organization.
"And no doubt they will be defeated in the future," he said.
"The Iraqi people is not the kind to be subjected to embargo. Iraq's people cannot be isolated from the Arab world or the whole of humanity," Hussein said in his first public comments since smart sanctions were shelved.
The US-backed British proposals to ease a trade embargo while tightening controls on Iraqi oil exports and arms-related imports were shelved last week at the UN Security Council under opposition from Russia and Iraq's neighbors -- BAGHDAD (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
