Saddam says U.S. will reap nothing, urges Iran to normalize ties

President Saddam Hussein said Saturday the United States will reap nothing but a ``harvest ... full of thorns'' from its campaign against Iraq.

Addressing the nation on television to mark the anniversary of the end of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, Saddam also urged Iran to normalize relations with Iraq.

Saddam did not refer to his decision Wednesday to freeze cooperation with U.N. arms inspectors, but he said the United States and its allies would be misled if they thought they could bring Iraq to its knees.

This is exactly what the Iranian government under the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini thought it could do in the war, but it failed, Saddam said.

``Those imposing aggression on Iraq ... and the unfair embargo neglect this fact today,'' Saddam said, referring to sweeping sanctions the United Nations imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

``They are making the same mistake. Their harvest will be full of thorns and the outcome will be a taste of bitterness.''

The president delivered his speech in a black suit. He had decreed that Saturday be celebrated as a day of victory over Iran, and an artillery salute of 101 guns boomed over Baghdad in the early morning. National radio and television played patriotic songs for the occasion.

Saddam spoke, 7th graf pvs