BAGHDAD, July 7: President Saddam Hussein’s eldest son Uday warned on Sunday of a US plan to launch a military strike on Iraq and break up the region’s countries, including Saudi Arabia.

“The US 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.

“Support will be given, whether by unarmed men or men armed to the teeth, by tanks placed at the border for Saudis to use or tanks manned by Iraqis.”—AFP