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140,000 Egyptians rally for Iraq Jordan Times - CAIRO (AFP) — Some 140,000 Egyptians rallied in a stadium here Thursday in their largest demonstration yet to show support for Iraq, urging Arab leaders set to meet in Egypt Saturday to oppose US war plans. The demonstration was the first since the Iraqi crisis reemerged last summer to be authorised by the permission of the government, which only last week extended for another three years the emergency laws in force since 1981. It was organised by Islamist, leftist and pan-Arab Nasserian opposition parties and held in Cairo's central stadium. The venue was a compromise with them to calm the government fears of letting people vent their anger in the streets. "Our gathering is a message to Arab leaders and America," the leader of the leftist Tagammo (Rally) Party, Khaled Mohieddin, told the packed crowd brandishing Iraqi, Egyptian and Palestinian flags. "The message is that Iraq and Palestine are questions of prime importance for us, they are more important than internal questions," he added. His speech was greeted by an unproar of shouting: "O leaders of the country, open up the gate of Jihad," or holy war. "Arab leaders who will meet in Sharm El Sheikh," the Red Sea Resort on the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula, "have the choice of either supporting Iraq and Palestine, or standing alongside the enemies of Arabs and Islam," said Nasserian opposition MP Hamdin Sabahi. Groups of demonstrators went round track of the stadium brandishing Iraqi, Egyptian and Palestinian flags, saluted by the crowd shouting "with our blood, with our souls, we will sacrifice ourselves for you, Iraq." A clear majority of the participants belonged to the Islamist movement, brandishing copies of the Koran. Thousands of veiled women were seated on separate blocks of the stadium's steps. Some demonstrators also vented their anger at President Hosni Mubarak's plans to meet recently reelected Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "Those who agree to talk to Sharon the butcher are not part of us," said a 19-year-old student, Ibrahim Seifuddine.
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