- BAGHDAD (Kyodo News) - President Saddam Hussein said Monday Iraq will
stand firmly by Iran against ''any aggression,'' affirming an affinity
with an erstwhile enemy with which it fought an eight-year war in the 1980s.
''We say it loud and clear: we are against aggression on Iran for many
reasons and we are committed to our stand,'' Saddam told a cabinet meeting,
according to the official Iraqi News Agency.
Saddam made what diplomatic observers believe to be the first sympathetic
gesture toward Iran since the 1980-1998 Iran-Iraq war, which claimed the
lives of over a million people on both sides.
Ties between the two Islamic neighbors -- branded by U.S. President George
W. Bush as part of an ''axis of evil'' --remained strained ever since the
1980s war, but lately the two countries have been engaged in a slow and
steady rapprochement.
''Iran is a neighborly country, and whatever affects it in terms of instability,
aggression or harm would have inevitable repercussions on us. Because of
the deep historical reasons as well, we are against any aggression on Iran,''
Saddam was quoted as saying.
INA said Saddam sent a congratulatory message to Iranian President Mohammad
Khatami on the 23rd anniversary of the Iranian revolution that brought
the Islamic clergy to power in Iran.
Saddam said he wishes the Iranian people ''progress and prosperity and
the ties between our two countries continuous development and growth.''
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