Iraq Rejects Warning, Assails Mubarak : Mideast: Egyptian leader is labeled ‘a clown and liar’ after calling on Hussein to withdraw his forces from Kuwait.

The Iraqi government on Tuesday rejected an appeal for peace from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, dismissing his warning of a “merciless hell” if war erupts in the Persian Gulf as “hollow words” prompted by Egypt’s allies in the United States.

“Bush and his aides have chosen for themselves a clown and liar to play the sly role on their behalf, one who speaks the language of the Arabs,” the official Iraqi News Agency said in response to Mubarak’s latest appeal for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait.

“We tell lightheaded Hosni that, unlike him and his advisers, we are not ones to be intimidated by navies and hollow words proceeding from sick minds,” the agency said. “ . . . The crocodile tears shed by Hosni for those of us who fall as martyrs are to no avail, since martyrdom is the highest rung that can be reached by an Iraqi or Arab person.”

The sarcastic response was prompted by Mubarak’s New Year’s Eve warning to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that “the situation is more dangerous than expectations can imagine.” He called on Hussein to exercise “wisdom of historic responsibility” and withdraw from Kuwait.

“We are nearing a merciless hell and horrible days, when towns will be devastated and heavy damage will be inflicted on the interests of the Arab people, primarily the Iraqi people,” Mubarak cautioned.

Mubarak’s appeal came amid dreary predictions by Egyptian military officials, who, amid a last-minute flurry of appeals for peace from the European Community and other world leaders, are preparing for war.

An additional 1,000 Egyptian troops left for Saudi Arabia over the weekend, joining more than 20,000 Egyptian soldiers who were among the first to join U.S. troops as part of the multinational force poised on the Saudi-Kuwaiti border.

“I cannot be optimistic. I am 100% pessimistic. Day after day, everybody has become convinced, completely convinced, there will be war,” a senior Egyptian military official said in an interview this week.

The official, discounting some assertions by U.S. officials that forces will not be prepared to fight until the middle of next month, said: “The forces, all of the forces, are ready from now.”

“We have a full understanding and mutual cooperation between us and all forces in the theater, and now we are ready on the ground to go,” he said. “We are clear. Everybody’s clear. Any concessions are not permitted. The conviction is very strong. We have one objective, the complete Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait, without any precondition.”

As Vice President Dan Quayle visited U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia for the New Year holiday, Hussein paid his own visit to Iraqi military forces on the front on New Year’s Eve and was shown on Baghdad television cooking dinner for the troops.

“His excellency met last night with the soldiers of our brave armed forces on the occasion of the New Year and the beginning of the heated duel between the believers under the leadership of Baghdad, where all the moujahedeen are lining against the infidels, the deviationists and the hypocrites led by America and its servants,” the Iraqi News Agency said.

The American Cable News Network broadcast Iraqi footage of Hussein with the troops, which CNN said it believed was filmed in Kuwait. The film showed Hussein pouring salt into a steaming pot, then helping to lift the pot off the fire and stirring its contents with a spoon.

In remarks to his soldiers, Hussein reportedly reiterated that Iraq will not give up Kuwait. He said Kuwait is part of Iraq’s “body and soul, which has been chopped off and made a center of sabotage against Iraq.”

“Iraq’s men, children and women will not be defeated, and they will fight and fight on until God decides” when to stop, the Associated Press reported Hussein as saying.

He also said Iraq, a country of about 17 million, has mobilized 60 military divisions, in contrast to the 14 divisions that make up the multinational force arrayed against it. Iraqi divisions, however, vary in size and often are much smaller than those in the West.

The Associated Press, reporting from Nicosia, Cyprus, quoted an unidentified Arab military analyst in Baghdad as saying that Hussein has formed five new divisions of his elite Republican Guards and that they could be deployed in occupied Kuwait to counter any U.S.-led attack.

The new divisions, totaling about 130,000 men, were formed with troops from other divisions and reservists mobilized since Iraq seized Kuwait on Aug. 2, the analyst said. “Most of them have good combat experience from the (1980-88) war with Iran, and many have served in the guards corps before.”

The expert’s claims could not be confirmed independently, AP said.

AP also reported that Hussein lashed out at Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd in New Year’s Eve remarks, accusing the king of refusing financial assistance to Iraq, Palestinians and other poor Arabs. Instead, Hussein said, Saudi Arabia is giving billions to the United States and other nations to launch an attack against Iraq.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s leading newspaper, Al Ahram, reported Tuesday that Greek authorities have arrested 15 Iraqis traveling to Europe who were believed to be preparing for sabotage missions in the event that hostilities break out in the Persian Gulf.

The newspaper, quoting “semiofficial sources close to Greek security authorities,” said the Iraqis, traveling with aliases, told Greek authorities that the Iraqi government is preparing terrorist operations in order to destabilize countries opposed to it. But officials in Athens were reported to have denied the Al Ahram report, and there was no independent confirmation of the arrests.