إرشادات مقترحات البحث معلومات خط الزمن الفهارس الخرائط الصور الوثائق الأقسام

مقاتل من الصحراء

     



Letter from President Saddam Hussein to Soviet President
Mikhail Gorbachev in reply to his letter of
18 January 19911

         In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate. Mr. President Gorbachev, peace be upon you.

         Having read your letter and reviewed the situation and the background of relations between our two countries and two peoples, I had a feeling that I should be angry with you, or at least blame you for the method with which you tackled the issues that you described as serious and dramatic, and the means you proposed for protecting Iraq from destruction.

         After remembering that the international community today is living under, or rather falling in one way or another under the mercy of the US law of hegemony and domination, with a few exceptions here and there, my anger abated and I desisted from leveling any blame here in my letter.

We, Mr. President, would like to state a fact that cannot be overemphasized; namely, that we are as free as our mothers gave birth to us and as God created us from the earth. Because we are free men and we insist on retaining our freedom, we reject the US law of hegemony and domination. We are not the ones who have committed aggression against the United States and waged war against it. So we should not be asked to make statements that would make the United States appear to be twisting our steadfast will and that would tempt it to continue its blackmail and arrogance in our region and the world, based on the notion that everyone must submit to its law of hegemony over the world.

         From the very beginning, we have been drawing the attention of people who care for freedom and sovereignty and those who care about implementing the law of the only living God in relations among peoples. We have always emphasized the importance of dialogue among nations because it is important among people. Then and only then, and when the method of equitable dialogue is used, the human mind would be able to find a solution to all the region's problems, which are linked together like cause and effect. This is especially so if the dialogue is given a healthy atmosphere and mankind is provided with reassurance.

         You might remember, Mr. President, that as we recall the requirements of our responsibility, which we do not forget - as Bush and the failures who encouraged him to commit his aggression and to hold man and mankind in contempt have forgotten - we say that because of our human responsibility toward security and stability in the world, we submitted our initiative on 12 August 1990, which your government said was positive in the beginning. You did not pursue your efforts to put it within the framework of serious discussion. You remember how Bush rejected it only two hours after we broadcast it on the air without even bothering to ask for an official copy of the initiative. He might not have even read it as disseminated by world news agencies.


1 A. G. Noorani, The Gulf Wars, Documents and Analysis, Nonark Publishers PVT LTD, Delhi, 1991, pp. 235-237.

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