Uday warns of U.S. plan to strike Iraq, break up region

Baghdad/London(Agencies): Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday warned on Sunday of a U.S. plan to launch a military strike on Iraq and break up the regions countries, including Saudi Arabia.

"The U.S. administration has drawn up a plan aimed at striking Iraq and breaking up the countries of the region," Uday alleged in a long article that covered the front and back pages of his Babel newspaper.

The plan envisaged making "Jordan an alternative country for the Palestinians, dividing Saudi Arabia into three parts, and scrapping Bahrain's identity and re-attaching it to Persia," he said in the article which carried one of his pseudonyms, Abu Hatem.

The United Arab Emirates will remain united only as long as Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan remains head of state, Uday added, warning that the country "will be divided up eventually."

"Iraq is ready to come to the rescue of Saudi Arabia if the country is threatened.

"A single telephone call, a simple sign to Baghdad, and they (the Saudis) will see Iraq launch all its forces to support the kingdom against those seeking to break it up," Uday said.

He added that the U.S. plan would not succeed while the Palestinian intifada against Israel continued.

Saddam has announced that 6.5 million Iraqis have been mobilized to "liberate Palestine" — and are waiting for Arab states bordering Israel to open their frontiers.

The U.S. administration has repeatedly threatened to launch a military strike on Iraq to topple the regime of Saddam, whom it accuses of developing weapons of mass destruction.

The New York Times reported last Friday that a top secret U.S. military document outlines a massive, three-pronged attack on Iraq by land, sea and air with as many as 250,000 troops and hundreds of warplanes.

The prospect of U.S. military action was heightened this week after talks between Baghdad and the UN on the return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq broke down.

Meanwhile, Britain's defense ministry called a report on Sunday that it would commit 30,000 troops to a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as "speculative" but said it was working very closely with Washington's "war on terror".

The Sunday Telegraph said Britain, Washington's staunchest international ally, would contribute a division of 20,000 soldiers, made up of armored and infantry brigades, to a U.S. military strike to oust Saddam.

The division would be supported by at least 10,000 other personnel, including up to 50 combat jets and an aircraft carrier group including frigates, destroyers and a submarine, the report said.

The offensive would probably take place early next year, it said.

"Troops have been pulled back from the Balkans and Afghanistan in preparation for a spring attack on Iraq," the newspaper quoted a senior defense official as saying.

About 70 former Iraqi military officers opposed to Saddam were preparing to meet in London on Friday to discuss a potential coup and the military's role in the democratic Iraq which could follow, the Iraqi opposition announced last week.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said on Saturday that a U.S. assault on Baghdad would entrench and not weaken Saddam.

Aziz, on a six-day visit at the invitation of South African Deputy President Jacob Zurna, said Iraq was aware of the reported U.S. plan to attack Iraq.

"Yes, we know they are preparing to attack Iraq...but I am not scared.