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Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, who has arrived in Damascus on his way to Cairo to take part in the Arab foreign ministers' emergency meeting, warned Turkey of a double harm if it provides help to the United States. He also called on Arab governments to support Iraq.
Sabri -recording
This is the fourth day and your heroic people in Iraq are fighting with faith and firmness this colonial invasion and are defeating this colonial invasion on all fronts. In Basrah the enemy is besieged in the spot where it landed its forces, in the Al-Faw peninsula which is an uninhabited desert. It enemy took defenceless civilian villagers as prisoners. They villagers were not fighters but it said they were soldiers. They were not soldiers but civilians; some civilians. It tried to land near Al-Nasiriyah town but the local sons of the tribes and sons of the Ba'ath party confronted it. It tried again to land near the house of God's Prophet Abraham, peace be upon him, but it was confronted by the sons of the tribes and the sons of the party. So its movement is restricted there. It attempted to penetrate Akashat area but it was confronted by civilian sons of Iraqi tribes. They restricted its landing and caused it enormous loss.
Regarding the coward air attacks perpetrated by this enemy, yesterday it fired 1,000 missiles. Today, life in Baghdad is more lively than yesterday, after the Zionist enemy hit Baghdad with 1,000 missiles. Today, movement in Baghdad is normal and people are doing their jobs.
From Baghdad to here, wherever we look we find armed civilians in their trenches in the depth of the desert and in streets. In the whole of Baghdad armed civilians are protecting the town. Outside Baghdad, in every town, there are armed civilians, the sons of the people who are first armed with the belief in Almighty God and second in the firm belief in the just cause and in the capabilities of this great Iraq; this great Arab Muslim Iraq.
The entire Iraqi people are now united in defending their country and dignity. We would like to bring good news to our heroic Syrian Arab people that, God willing, we will be victorious and we will make from the Iraqi deserts a graveyard for these invaders.
Today while in Baghdad suburbs, we heard the sound of explosions. So we looked at the sky and we saw a US aircraft shot down by an Iraqi missile. The aircraft crashed in front of us in Abi Ghrayyib. There are aircraft coming down and many other things which the general command of the armed forces will announce.
What I want to tell the sons of the heroic Arab people in the Syrian Arab Republic, and the sons of the Arab people everywhere, is that we, in Iraq, are steadfast and we have the upper hand. We will crush the aggressors and we will teach them a lesson which they will not forget.
The great Arab people in Iraq are selected by God in order to defeat this Zionist arrogance of the evil administration in Washington. Thank God, everything is under control. We, God willing, are sure of victory. The Zionist aggressors believed that the Iraqi people would surrender and that the Iraqi leadership and army would surrender. They have become disappointed. This are the Iraqi people who will fight them from the border to the border. The entire Iraqi people are armed. There are seven million armed civilians. This is in addition to the Iraqi army; the heroic Iraqi army.
Unidentified journalist
Your excellency the minister, can you tell me briefly what is happening in the south? There has been conflicting news on the capture of Umm Qasr port; there is conflicting news that they landed at the back of Al-Nasiriyah and in Al-Faw peninsula. What precisely is happening in the south now?
Sabri
There was landing in Al-Faw peninsula desert. This landing remained as it was. Iraqi defensive positions remained as they were. There were fake rumours within the context of the US dirty psychological war against your people in Iraq which said that the armoured unit 51 which protects Basrah borders had surrendered. We sent journalists to see the unit and to meet its commander.
Newscaster
This was Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri speaking in Damascus while on his way to Cairo to take part in the meeting of Arab foreign ministers.
Copyright BBC Monitoring 2003. For fair use only/ pour usage �quitable seulement .