Hussein a tumour that must be removed—lran

Press, 4 June 1984, Page 8

Hussein a tumour that must be removed—lran

NZPA-Reuter Bahrain Iran said it would continue its efforts to destroy the Iraqi Government as Iraq placed its troops on alert amid predictions of a new Iranian offensive in the Gulf war. Teheran yesterday flatly rejected a United Nations Security Council resolution criticising Iran for attacks on shipping on the western side of the Gulf. “We could not expect anything else from the Security Council, a council in which the law of the jungle rules and whoever is stronger has the veto right,” Iran’s national news agency Irna quoted the Prime Minister, Mr Hussein Musavi, as saying. Speaking to journalists in Teheran, Mr Musavi said, “We are determined to punish the aggressor.” He des-

cribed the Iraqi President, Mr Saddam Hussein, as a “tumour that must ... be removed.” Diplomatic sources in Bagdad said Iran was preparing a two-pronged offensive in the north and against the southern port of Basra on the West Bank of the Shatt al-Arab waterway. The Bagdad Government said its forces were on full alert and ready to repel any offensive. The diplomatic sources said Iran had mobilised 250,000 regular troops, along with other forces on the southern front. They said Teheran’s decision to mount a longawaited offensive appeared to be in response to Iraq’s success in attacking Gulf shipping supplying Iran and blockading Iran’s main Kharg Island oil terminal.

Eyewitnesses in Iraq reported seeing streams of tank-transporters heading towards the southern war front with hundreds of sophisticated Soviet T 72 battle tanks. Diplomatic sources in the Gulf said it was believed Iraq had also opened up dams to flood the marshlands on the southern front and further impede an Iranian attack. In Kuwait, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Mr Tareq Aziz, said during a one-day visit that his country was confident it would crush any fresh Iranian attack. “We are absolutely sure that if the Iranian regime, once more, embarks on a foolish adventure with aggression against Iraq, that the Iraqi Armed Forces would crush this aggression as it did previous ones,” he said.