Saddam to Deliver Nationwide Address on Gulf War Anniversary

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 17, 2002

Saddam to Deliver Nationwide Address on Gulf War Anniversary

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Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will deliver a nationwide address Thursday morning to mark the 11th anniversary of the outbreak of the 1991 Gulf war, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported on Wednesday.

In the speech, Saddam is expected to be adamant and intransigent as ever toward the United States, the country that led the multinational coalition in the Gulf War and evicted Iraqi troops out of neighboring Kuwait after a seven-month occupation.

However, Saddam may strike a conciliatory note in his speech toward Arab foes such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, the two Arab states which have hosted U.S.-British planes to enforce a no-fly zone over southern Iraq since the Gulf War with the alleged aim of protecting the Shiite Muslims there from the persecution of the Iraqi regime.

A similar no-fly zone was set up by the U.S.-led Western allies over northern Iraq to allegedly protect the Kurdish population there. Senior Iraqi officials, including Saddam himself, have made obliging remarks recently on Kuwait and Saudi Arabia ahead of an Arab summit due in late March.

Thursday marks the 11th anniversary of the outbreak of the Gulf War, which started in the early morning of January 17, 1991 when the U.S.-led multinational forces began a bombing blitz on Iraq and Iraqi troops in Kuwait. The six-week war was triggered by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990.

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