Arabs must retake Jerusalem: Iraq

                  Baghdad - Iraq urged the Arab world
                  to follow the example of Muslim hero
                  Saladin and recapture Jerusalem, warning that Palestine could not be
                  freed through "bargaining and concessions."

                  "The Arabs have to learn the lesson of Saladin's liberation of Palestine
                  and Jerusalem," said the ruling party's newspaper, Ath-Thawra, in
                  reaction to the killing of 36 Palestinians in clashes with Israeli forces.

                  "Palestine will not be won back through bargaining and concessions
                  made from a position of weakness but through mobilisation of all
                  resources and collective Arab support for the Palestinians."

                  Pouring scorn on the US-sponsored peace process, Ath-Thawra
                  warned that Washington "cannot be a friend or honest broker in any
                  Arab cause, especially not the Palestinian one."

                  Saladin's historic victory over the Crusaders in 1187, which is marked
                  by discussions at Iraqi universities each October 2, led to the capture
                  of the holy city for the Muslims.

                  A Kurdish warrior who commanded Egyptian and Syrian troops in the
                  battle for Jerusalem, Saladin was from Tikrit in northern Iraq where
                  Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was also born.

                  The Iraqi government, in its first reaction to several days of bloodshed
                  in the Palestinian territories, called on Sunday for "a jihad (holy war) to
                  liberate Palestine". - Sapa-AFP