Saudi Newspapers Call on Saddam to Abdicate or Commit Suicide

It's clear that Hussein can't stay, no matter how many Europeans protest. Saudi columnists agree.

In a highly unusual step, a number of Arab intellectuals have circulated a petition calling on Saddam to abdicate. To avoid a catastrophe in the Middle East, the petitioners: "Call upon public opinion in the Arab world to exercise pressure for the dismissal from power of Saddam Hussein and his close aides in Iraq in order to avoid a war that threatens with catastrophe the peoples of the region. [They also call] for the rule of democracy in Baghdad and for the stationing across Iraq of human rights monitors from the United Nations and the Arab League to oversee the peaceful transition of power."

All these exhortations pale in comparison with an article in the Saudi daily al-Jazeera. After analyzing the Saudi Kingdom's four options with regard to the war on Iraq, D. Ali bin Shuwail al-Qarni, Chairman of the Board of the Saudi Society for Information and Communications and Associate Professor for Information at King Sa'ud University, calls on Saddam to commit suicide:

"As far as Iraq is concerned, the change [in regime] is inevitably coming with or without a war. But what will be the destiny of Saddam Hussein? Will His Highness abdicate his authority to prevent bloodshed and save the vital interests of Iraq as well the region's interests?"

If Saddam chooses not to abdicate he has no other choice to save the world of a disaster, says al-Qarni, "but to reach out to the suicide revolver and fire the shot of mercy to finish the tragedy which he has started."

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