Text of Letter Urging Saddam to Step Down

The Associated Press

Published 7:00 pm, Friday, February 28, 2003

Text of letter from Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, to Arab leaders meeting at a summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik in which he called for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to leave office.

I call on the Arab summit to adopt an initiative based on the following points:

1. That the Iraqi leadership should step down and leave Iraq with all the appropriate advantages within two weeks of adopting this Arab initiative.

2. Regional and international binding legal guarantees should be given to the Iraqi leadership so that it won't be subject to any form of legal action.

3. A general, complete amnesty should be made for all Iraqis inside and outside Iraq.

4. The Arab League, in cooperation with the U.N. secretary-general, should supervise the situation in Iraq for an interim period during which all necessary measures are taken in order to return the situation to its normal situation according to the will of the brotherly Iraqi people.

Convening this Arab summit gives us an opportunity for hope that the leaders of the Arab nations can contribute to crystalizing an exit from this complex and dangerous crisis, which can preserve Iraq's unity and territorial integrity and prevent its people from suffering destruction and losses and defuse a fierce war which will undoubtedly destabilize the region and the whole world.

"Stemming from our commitment to Iraq's unity and our belief in the good for its people and my conviction that Arab leaders should play a major role in something which might amount to the miracle needed to overcome this looming danger peacefully, and stemming from our awareness of the circumstances surrounding this crisis and its regional and international dimensions I decided to appeal to you, my dear brothers, with these ideas and perceptions, which I believe might contribute to achieving what we hope for."