CAIRO Ñ Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has delivered a warning to Saddam Hussein that a U.S.
war against Baghdad appears inevitable.
The Egyptian president, a vociferous opponent of toppling the Iraqi regime, said the current standoff with Iraq is far
different than that in 1990. He pointed to the collapse of the Soviet Union
and the emergence of the United States as the only world power.
"We must all realize that the world system has changed a lot since
1990," Mubarak said. "And the Arab stance has also changed."
Mubarak warned that nobody could rule out a U.S.-led war against Saddam.
He said he had relayed this assessment to Iraqi leaders.
The change in the Arab position includes divisions since the 1990 Iraqi
invasion of Kuwait. He said the divisions required for greater wisdom by
opponents of a U.S. war against Saddam.
Mubarak issued his remarks after he returned from Riyad where he met
Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. The summit was said to have focused on the
future of Iraq.
In Washington, a new report by the Heritage Foundation said the United States will require at least 40,000 troops
to ensure its war aims in a post-Saddam Iraq.
The report said that the
troops
would not help rebuild Iraq. Instead, the U.S. military presence would
ensure that neither President Saddam Hussein nor his supporters would try to
seize power.
The United States would require 100,000 troops to topple the Saddam
regime, the report said. A post-Saddam U.S. military presence would require
40,000 U.S. troops. Such a force would be bolstered by at least allied
troops.
"The post-combat U.S. military presence augmented by allied forces
should require roughly 40,000 U.S. troops to destroy the terrorist networks
and cells, eliminate Iraq's WMD arsenal and infrastructure, protect its
energy resources, and block Iranian hegemony in the region," the report
said. "The post-war military force in Iraq would be tasked primarily with
confronting any remnant elements of Saddam's deposed regime and deterring
other regional powers from exploiting the situation for purposes injurious
to the interests of the United States and its allies."
