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ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, DEC 29: Iraq's official media today lashed out at Arab leaders for not supporting Saddam Hussein's regime, and his deputy prime minister criticised the Egyptian president for saying that Iraq provoked the recent US-British air strikes.
Arab leaders must either support Iraq or risk the ``wrath'' of the Arab masses, Iraqi newspapers said in reference to the Arab League's failure to convene a proposed meeting of Arab foreign ministers to discuss and condemn the December 16-19 air strikes, which prompted widespread public protests in Arab capitals.
In another sign of dwindling official support for Iraq, hopes were fading for an Arab summit in which Baghdad believes Arab leaders will agree to defy United Nations trade sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The governments of Iraq's Arab neighbors have voiced little opposition to the air strikes although the mood on the streets has been vehemently pro-Iraq.
In a front-page editorial, Iraq's Al-Qadissiya newspaper warned Arableaders that ignoring ``the snowballing Arab wrath... will shake the ground from under their feet.''
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in one of his most forthright comments on the crisis, said in an interview published yesterday that Saddam was responsible for his country's woes.
``The ruling regime (in Iraq) is the reason for all the problems... and Egypt naturally does not support this regime,'' Mubarak was quoted as saying in the Al-Gomhuriya, an Egyptian government-owned newspaper.
Mubarak, a close US ally, also said that it was he who persuaded US President Bill Clinton to halt the bombardment, which was intended to diminish Iraq's ability to build weapons of mass destruction.
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz responded with harsh words in a front-page editorial he wrote for today's Al-Jumhouriya, an Iraqi government-owned newspaper.
``President Mubarak assumes a role for himself which both Washington and London have not given to him,'' Aziz wrote. ``In reality there is nonoble, fair and intelligent person in Egypt, in the Arab homeland or the whole world sharing Mr Mubarak in his deduction.''
Mubarak called for a halt to the strikes because he feared the anger in the Egyptian and Arab streets, Aziz said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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