Certain Arab states seek to take advantage of the execution of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to launch a psychological war against Iran, political analyst Sabah Zanganeh said here on Monday.
 

After 14 months on trial, Saddam was hanged on Saturday for crimes against humanity, specifically the murder of 148 people in Dujail, Iraq in 1982.

“Avoid engagement with Iranians,” Saddam supposedly said before being put to death, IRNA reported.

Through those words Saddam intended to reinforce the media’s psychological war against Iran and leave “hidden bombs of conflict” in Iraq, Zanganeh said.

Saddam was buried in the middle of the night in his native village Tikrit on Sunday.

The Tikrit funeral, which occurred after it had been announced that he was to be buried in an unknown location, is a sign of the current Iraqi government’s self-assurance, the analyst said.

“It shows that the Iraqi government is certain that no other legend like Saddam will emerge in Iraq, and thus they were not afraid to bury him in Tikrit,” he added.

However, the Iraqi people and the Islamic Republic of Iran must still pursue the case of the Baath regime’s crimes, Zanganeh stated.

A criminal has been removed from the case, but other elements still exist and they should be put on trial to shed light on Iraq’s history in order to prevent a repetition of such events, he noted.

U.S. more despicable than Saddam

International affairs analyst Ali Aqamohammadi said, “The U.S. has become more despicable than Saddam.”

The U.S. sought to cover up its own crimes through the execution of Saddam so that future trials investigating the dictator’s offenses would not cause any trouble for Washington, Aqamohammadi told the Mehr News Agency on Monday.

“With the execution of Saddam, the most important witness of the West’s unfair actions and double standards was wiped out, and through the swift execution of his half-brother (former intelligence chief Barzan) al-Tikriti, the trials will be dismissed,” he said.

Certain Middle Eastern and Western states are using their media outlets, including Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, to connect Saddam’s execution to Iran and expand their influence in Iraq, he observed.