(Newsweek in Arabic) - U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz I don't think many people really appreciate what a horrible regime this is. We met last week at the White House with a group of Iraqi-Americans. One of them said that there's a war going on right now against the Iraqi people by the regime. And if it comes to the use of force against Saddam Hussein, it will be a war for the Iraqi people, not against the Iraqi people. It will be a war to end Saddam's war against the Iraqi people. (Newsweek): What is your response to critics who question the administration's commitment to an Arab-Israeli peace settlement? Are people right to be skeptical? Absolutely not. The president was very, very clear when he spoke last summer about the vision of Israel and the Palestinian state living side by side in peace. Clearly the appointment of a moderate Palestinian as prime minister gave us a [new] opportunity to discuss the peace. I think it's important to tell the world - especially the Arab world - that we're not dealing with Saddam Hussein in order to ignore the Arab-Israeli problem. We're concerned about both. It is fact that Saddam Hussein has been one of the leading opponents of peace between Arabs and Israelis for more than two decades. It's not an accident that he was the man who organized the Baghdad summit of the Arab League that expelled Egypt for making peace with Israel [in the late '70s.] And it's not an accident that one of the most significant breakthroughs in the peace process took place in the Madrid Conference in the wake of his resounding defeat in the Gulf War. He's a man who advertises rewards for suicide bombers, and his removal will certainly contribute to a better atmosphere for progress on the Arab-Israeli issue. But believe me, this president, this administration, understands how important it is for American interests throughout the Muslim world, including in our fight against terrorism, to do something to bring about an end to the horrible violence that we see almost daily.
2003-03-21 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive