MARK DAVIS: Well, it's natural you would have taken some comfort from both the Security Council this week and the international protests, but in all the words that have been spoken against the war this week, not a single good word has been made about your president. Isn't Saddam Hussein now your single biggest problem?

MOHAMMED ALDOURI: Well, I don't think so, you know. We have a kind of psychological propaganda, an American one and a British one and even an Australian one, a very huge one. So the people are worried about the war not about our president. Whether they like our president or not, this is a national problem. This is a national point…

MARK DAVIS: It's more than that now. You're asking for international support, so it's very much a relevant question. If your country is a repressive, tyrannical country where there's no opposition, where people are imprisoned, where people are tortured and, indeed, people have been gassed in the past, it's a lot to ask, isn't it?

MOHAMMED ALDOURI: Are we discussing the question of human rights or we are discussing the question of mass-destruction weapons. If we are discussing the question of mass-destruction weapons, let us see that question, because it is a huge one. If we are talking about human rights - and I can say that we have problems of human rights, as anywhere in the Middle East. We are not the only country who have problems with human rights. Everywhere in the Arabic world, there is no country better than Iraq in this. But because of these two wars, we have this kind of propaganda against my country. So let us talk - human rights or, if we are finishing with this mass-destruction weapons and everything is solved, so perhaps we can discuss the other question.

MARK DAVIS: But the diplomatic reality is you are seeking allies. My point is it must make it extremely difficult for your country to rally any allies when no-one wants to support, or has any concern whether Saddam Hussein continues or not.

MOHAMMED ALDOURI: You know, these demonstrations - that means the awareness of the whole people in the world is there, exists because of this eventual war, American war, against my country. If the international public community is not aware about that, we wouldn't have these demonstrations. So you cannot say that we are alone. No. The whole people in the world are with us, because they are against the war, and we are against the war too.

MARK DAVIS: I mean, this is now reaching a very deadly point in history. Is the survival of your president too much of a price to pay? If you can save your country by encouraging him to resign, isn't that worth doing?

MOHAMMED ALDOURI: Look, I have been asked this question several times. It is not a question of Saddam Hussein or not, our president, no, it is not the question. Because at one time, our president has had good relations with the United States and Britain, in the '80s, for example. It is not the question of our president or not. It's a question of oil. It's a question of American hegemony. It is a question of Palestine. So, through Iraq, they want to resolve a lot of questions, even the economic crisis here in the United States. So this is the problem. It is not a question of Saddam Hussein or not.

MARK DAVIS: Ambassador, thanks for your time.