Iraqi President Saddam Hussein plans to pay Libya billions of dollars to secure political asylum for his family and senior members of the Baghdad regime in the event of a war with the West, The Times newspaper reported Saturday.
The deal, which would also cover an internal coup d’etat, would see the Iraqi leader pay $3,5-billion into Libyan banks for the safe haven of his family and around a dozen senior officials of the Baghdad regime and their families, the paper said.
The deal does not include plans to provide refuge to Saddam or his eldest son, Uday, according to The Times, which said it learnt from diplomatic sources in Tripoli that the Iraqi leader’s secret emissaries visited Libya and Syria to discuss an escape route.
The Times said any deal to provide refuge to Saddam or Uday would lead to Libya coming under intense international pressure to hand them over for war crimes trials.
According to the diplomatic sources in Tripoli, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri and deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, would be among senior Baghdad figures to be granted refuge by Libya.
The Times said details of the deal emerged following a visit to Tripoli on September 8 by General Ali Hasan al-Majid — who according to the paper is a cousin and trusted member of Saddam’s clan.
An overland escape route was devised during a visit by senior Iraqi officials to Damascus in October, The Times added.
It would involve those seeking asylum travelling from Tikrit, home of the Saddam clan, to the Syrian border via the Badiyat al-Sham desert dividing Syria from Iraq. – Sapa-AFP