Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir: Blue Stripes in Israeli Flag - The Nile and Euphrates

The following are excerpts from an interview with Sudanese President 'Omar Hassan Al-Bashir. Al-Alam TV aired this interview on February 18, 2005 in Arabic:

'Omar Hassan Al-Bashir: The Arab countries and Iran have the same problem: The world is trying to divide us into friendly countries and those that are not friendly, but ultimately, it turns out none of us is a friendly country. We are all in the same line. They are fighting all of us. Therefore, we have no choice but to cooperate and to have trust among ourselves.

Interviewer: Mr. President, how do you view the Iranian nuclear issue?

'Omar Hassan Al-Bashir: This truth is one of the manifestations of the injustice in the world. What's all the fuss about the Iranian nuclear issue, it is a known fact that Israel has nuclear weapons. so how come nobody is talking about the Israeli nuclear issue, if they're talking about making the region WMD-free? Isn't Israel in the heart of the region? Moreover, Israel has expansionist intentions. Iran has no such intentions and has no plans to attack countries in the region.

Interviewer: how do you view the future of the Middle East and of Iraq?

'Omar Hassan Al-Bashir: It is a known fact that to this day, Israel hasn't determined its borders, and everyone knows that the two blue stripes on the Israeli flag symbolize the Nile and the Euphrates – that is, that the Nile and the Euphrates should be within Israel's borders. Therefore, Israel's expansionist and aggressive intentions are fundamental, and anyone who thinks otherwise is trying to bury his head in the sand - like an ostrich, burying his head in the sand. We know that Israel wants to annex Iraq and the Egyptian delta to the "Greater Israel." This "Greater Israel" is an indispensable part of their faith. After all this, we say we want to make peace with Israel… This would merely be a truce, which Israel would accept in order to destroy the lands it occupied and in order to take more lands and to destroy them as well, until it fulfills its ideological goals.