Iraqi parliament condemens US war threats

(15 Jul 2002) 1. Wide shot Iraqi National Assembly in session 2. Mid shot session 3. Portrait of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein hanging in National Assembly 4. Member of Parliament addressing session 5. Parliament applauding 6. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Salem Al Kubaisi, Head of Foreign Department at the Assembly "The National Assembly, representative of the Iraqi people, condemns the American aggressive policy towards Iraq and Palestine. We also condemn President Bush's speech on June 25, 2002, and all related statements and actions concerning Iraq." 7. Various session 8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Behnam Abu Al-souf, Iraqi Member of Parliament "If Iraq is attacked, we are forced to defend our country, our land, our homeland, our people, so we will fight as we fought in January 1991, or perhaps better now. We now have experience to fight the American aggression, so we are ready, I would say, as a free people." 9. Wide shot session STORYLINE: The Iraqi Parliament has condemned the United States and pledged full support for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein at a time of heightened expectations that Washington will soon try to oust the Iraqi leader. Members of Iraq's National Assembly - all 250 of whom are required to be either members of Saddam's Baath Party or nominal independents loyal to him - pledged full support for any measures Saddam takes to confront American hostility. A Baghdad regime change is a stated policy of U-S President George W Bush, who earlier this year signed an order directing the C-I-A to increase support to Iraqi dissidents and permitting C-I-A and Special Forces teams to be used against the Iraqi president. The United States accuses Iraq of producing and stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. The parliamentary statement criticized any U-S attempt to establish a pro-American regime, and several lawmakers took turns to question Washington's right to interfere in Iraq's domestic affairs during the four-hour session. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...