BAGHDAD, OCT 16: Thousands of Iraqis paraded through Baghdad on Monday volunteering to help the Palestinians fight Israel as leading Iraqi newspapers condemned the Middle East crisis summit in Egypt.The volunteers, carrying rifles, chanted "Take us to Jerusalem to fight" as they passed in front of senior members of the ruling Baath party. "We do not believe in the Sharm el-Sheikh summit because it is a conspiracy against the Arabs," said Lukman al-Duleimi, a senior Baath party member, as he greeted the parade. He added: "We will never be silent.until Palestine is liberated fromsea to river."Babel, the newspaper owned by President Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday, asked: "Will the Sharm el-Sheikh summit give back life to the Palestinians killed by the Zionist military machine? Will it help to give back Jerusalem to the Arabs?"Newspapers said more than 2.5 million Iraqis had volunteered to fight with the Palestinians against Israeli troops. Babel said the summit was a plot orchestrated by Washington to kill the Palestinian uprising against Israel.The ruling Baath Party's newspaper Al-Thawra said it was aimed at "containing the Palestinian uprising and absorbing the Arab people's anger in order to return to the peace process under American auspices".Iraq has always taken a hard line towards Israel. It fired Scud missiles at the Jewish state during the 1991 Gulf War and opposes peace agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinians and those signed with other neighbouring countries.
