CAIRO - Arabs shared little of the world's joy over Saddam Hussein's capture, with many bitter over another victory for an "arrogant" pro-Israeli United States.

Though officials in Kuwait hailed the arrest of the dictator who ordered the invasion of their emirate in 1990, those in other Arab states were subdued, expressing hope only that US troops may soon end their occupation of Iraq.

An elderly Jordanian man kisses a picture of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in downtown Amman December 14, 2003. Arabs greeted the capture of Saddam Hussein with divided emotions, welcoming the arrest of a dictator yet tinged with regret that a symbol of Arab defiance against the United States was behind bars. (Ali Jarekji/Reuters)

Palestinian officials refused to comment after having paid a heavy political price for supporting Saddam during the 1991 US-led Gulf war to free Kuwait.

Many people in the streets of Cairo and Beirut openly cursed a victory for a United States they see as an arrogant and unjust power, while some even refused to believe their eyes and ears.

Eyes riveted to the television screen in a Cairo coffee shop, customers worried about this "American victory" and feared it would ensure the re-election of President George W. Bush next year.

"It's not Saddam that they should arrest," blurted Aziz al-Shaburi, a 34-year-old government employee, when he saw television images showing an American medic inspecting a bearded Saddam's mouth.

"They would have been better to capture (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon, the real war criminal," he said, eliciting applause from other patrons in the Awlad al-Hareth cafe.

Merchant Hassan Abdel Hamid, 34, refused to believe the news, dismissing it as "American propaganda and lies, just like the deaths of Qusay and Uday," Saddam's sons who were killed in a shootout earlier this year.

"Everybody knows who the real murderers are, they are the murderers of the Palestinians," Abdel Hamid said.

"Why did no Arab king offer 25 million dollars for Sharon's arrest?" he asked, referring to Washington's reward for the capture of Saddam.

Abdel Hamid shook his head scornfully while watching Iraqis celebrate Saddam's arrest. "Yesterday they shouted 'with our soul and our blood, we will defend you, oh Saddam'," he said.

Mustafa Bakri, the pro-Saddam editor in chief of the independent Egyptian weekly Al-Osbou, said on the television: "It's a black day in the history of the Arabs. It's a humiliation.

"It's Bush, Blair, Berlusconi, Aznar and Sharon who should be put on trial," said Bakri, who organized several solidarity trips from Cairo to Baghdad before US troops invaded in March.

Mahmud el-Azzazi, 29, another patron, said: "It's the end of the Arabs. There will be a domino effect. His fall will lead to that of other Arab leaders who displease the Americans."

In Beirut, Doha Shams, a journalist with the leftist newspaper As-Safir, said: "It's great to be finished with Saddam but when will Bush's turn come? He is threatening world peace."

An elegantly dressed 70-year-old Lebanese woman named Lilie said she was sad "because it's a victory for the Americans whom I detest. It will increase their arrogance."

Her remarks were in sharp contrast to those of Kuwaiti Information Minister Mohammed Abulhassan.

"Thank God that he has been captured alive, so he can be tried for the heinous crimes he has committed" against the Iraqi and Kuwaiti peoples, said Abulhassan, who was Kuwait's UN representative at the time of the invasion.

A statement from the government in Jordan, which like the Palestinians opposed the war against Saddam in 1991, said a "page has been turned" with his capture and hoped Iraqis could soon take charge of their own country again.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said he told US Secretary of State Colin Powell when he received his phone call that he hoped the event will quicken the transfer of power back to Iraqis and the withdrawal of US forces.

However, he conceded "I don't think anyone will be sad over Saddam Hussein."

Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said the Iraqi people should "decide the fate of the old regime and its old leaders," alluding to the discovery of mass graves after Saddam's fall during the US invasion in April.

In Riyadh, Gulf Cooperation Council chief Abderrahman al-Attiya told AFP, "The capture of Saddam Hussein is an achievement, a step on the road towards restoring stability and national unity in Iraq."

He added, "We hope that (it) will be followed by other achievements on the road towards transferring power to the Iraqi people, a rapid restoration of constitutional life in Iraq and the formation of an elected and representative government."

Bahrain, a member of the GCC along with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman, said Saddam's capture opened "a new page" conducive to a prosperous "new Iraq."

A foreign ministry spokesman, quoted by the official BNA news agency, said it should restore unity and "cohesion" among the Iraqi people to build "a promising future in a prosperous Iraq enjoying security and cooperating with its neighbors to promote stability and development" in the region.

Copyright 2003 AFP

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