"Saddam's regime will be defeated -- if it chooses conflict -- in a matter of weeks and the people of Basra, Baghdad and Mosel will be out in the street to celebrate. With a new Iraq and a peace solution in Palestine, which I don't think is unachievable, because I firmly believe that the majority of the Israeli people want peace and don't care much about the settlements and certainly don't want to occupy the West Bank indefinetly. If they could find a voice and rebuild the peace camp then the perspective in Palestine can change rapidly. So the future of this region is very promising but you have got a few years of real difficulty to go through"

"This is not a colonial era where a Western army comes in and takes control of the assets and throws a few pennies to the natives. It is about an independent Iraq, having the capacity to rebuild its own country using its own natural resources" (

photos: Hassan Shawqi)