Iraq Cuts Diplomatic Ties With U.S., Other Major Gulf Allies : Diplomacy: Britain, France, Italy, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are named. Baghdad vows ‘revenge’ against Bush.

Iraq on Wednesday cut already limited diplomatic relations with the United States and most of its major allies in the Gulf War and promised “revenge” against President Bush for trying “to expel Iraq from the 20th Century.”

In a brief early evening broadcast monitored here, Baghdad Radio said: “The Foreign Ministry issued a statement today in which it declared that Iraq has decided to break off its diplomatic relations with the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, the Egyptian regime and the Saudi regime.”

The ministry called on other Arab and Muslim nations to follow suit. “We call on the nationalistic regimes in the Arab homeland and the governments of the Islamic states to take the same step of severing diplomatic relations with the states of the American-Atlantic aggression and the Arab regimes allied with them,” the statement said.

The Baghdad government’s action has little practical effect because none of the affected governments have any diplomats remaining in Baghdad, and Iraq has only a few representatives in the six nations--and those have had their activities restricted.

There was no direct explanation for the decision to sever official contacts at this time, more than three weeks after the outbreak of war, nor why diplomatic relations will continue with other coalition members such as Syria and Turkey.

However, Baghdad has worked incessantly to portray the conflict as a war between the infidel and imperialistic West against the Arab and Islamic world. So cutting diplomatic relations, no matter how meaningless, is a finalizing symbol of the chasm between the two sides.

The ministry statement said that since Iraq invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2, setting off the current crisis, Baghdad “has been careful” to keep the dispute “within the framework of the Arab family . . . without any foreign interference in the affairs of the Arab nation.”

On the other hand, the statement said, the United States has sought to carry out a “conspiratorial and aggressive scheme against Iraq” and enlisted the “colonialist countries which have dispatched their forces to occupy the holy places of the Arabs and Muslims . . . to strike at Iraq and its resurgent power.”

The Iraqi Embassy in Washington announced that it will remain open for a few more days and expects to give more details today about its future.

In explaining the reason for severing diplomatic ties, the broadcast said: “In view of the participation of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Italy in the unjust aggression against Iraq, Iraq has decided to sever diplomatic relations with these countries as of today.

“In view of the direct responsibility of the Saudi regime in this aggression and making of the territory of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia a platform for launching the aggression against the people of Iraq, and in view of the direct participation of the Egyptian regime in this aggression . . . Iraq has decided to sever diplomatic relations with these two traitor regimes.”

The statement also called “on all militant nationalist forces to assume their militant responsibility to confront these two agent regimes. . . . Iraq also calls on the public in the United States, Britain, France, Italy and the entire world to condemn the aggressive course of these governments.”

This followed earlier broadcasts that had stepped up the level of vituperation aimed at the coalition and warned that terrorism in the name of a holy war “would escalate.”

Calling President Bush a liar for denying that the United States is targeting such civilian sites as residential neighborhoods, mosques, churches and other nonmilitary facilities, Baghdad Radio said the allies are trying to destroy the nation’s infrastructure.

“The air and missile raids against Iraq,” the broadcast said, “targeted all the scientific, economic and cultural installations, went beyond that to target medical installations, places of worship and sacred sites. . . .

“They want to expel Iraq from the 20th Century.”

To emphasize that point, the broadcast claimed that allied air attacks Tuesday night and Wednesday morning against the southeastern oil city of Nasiriyah, had killed 150 civilians, among them 35 children. About 60,000 people live in Nasiriyah.

This was Iraq’s largest claim of civilian deaths in a single raid since the fighting started and increased to 578 the number of non-military people Baghdad says have been killed by coalition attacks.

The official government newspaper Al Thawra said Wednesday that 349 people have been killed in Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city and the target of almost constant heavy bombardment.

All of these claims are part of a shift in Iraqi propaganda tactics, from at first denying the size and effectiveness of the allied campaign to a program to convince the world that the coalition is attempting to destroy Iraq.

In spite of the death and destruction, the radio commentary said, “those rascals know that they are not weighty enough to achieve their goal.”

“The Iraqi people will pursue them for this crime, even if they leave office and disappear into oblivion.”

This far-from-subtle threat of terrorism was linked to yet another call for attacks on Western targets throughout the world.

After charging that the Western media is trying “to downplay the effectiveness” of Iraq’s call for supporters around the world to attack “the interests of imperialists and their allies,” the radio said that “the jihad actions mounted by good Muslims . . . will escalate each day.”

And, as if to underline the threat to increase terrorism, the radio repeated again a cryptic message first broadcast Monday night that seems to call on specific agents to go into action.