An Iraqi official said on Friday Baghdad will recommend that Arab states use oil as a weapon to exert pressure on Israel and countries that back it, particularly the United States, over the Gaza crisis. "Playing the economic card is our most powerful weapon at the moment in supporting the Palestinian people, for no military power can currently stand up to Israel," Iraq's permanent Arab League representative Qais al-Azzawi said.
He told reporters in the Egyptian capital, where the League has its headquarters, that Baghdad would take this stand at Saturday's emergency meeting of foreign ministers from the pan-Arab body called by Egypt to discuss Gaza. "What happened in 1973, when the Arabs stopped oil exports to Western states, is proof that this weapon can succeed in the battle between the Arabs and Israel," Azzawi said of a decision taken during the October Yom Kippur war.