Saddam turned down last-minute Russian call to go

Reuters | 4/11/03 | Clara Ferreira-Marques

[kattracks]

Saddam turned down last-minute Russian call to go

By Clara Ferreira-Marques

MOSCOW, April 11 (Reuters) - The veteran Kremlin envoy pleaded with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to step down only three days before the U.S. big guns opened up on Baghdad.

The Iraqi strongman heard Yevgeny Primakov out, patted him on the shoulder...and then walked out of the room without another word.

Saddam's defiant answer to Russia's last-minute top-secret mission to stave off the U.S.-led offensive against Iraq emerged late on Friday from Primakov, a former Russian prime minister and old friend of Iraq who had known Saddam for years.

Primakov, 73, said President Vladimir Putin sent him on the make-or-break mission on March 17 -- only three days before the the U.S.-led offensive opened up and sealed Saddam's fate.

Recalling on Russian television his dramatic, last encounter with Saddam in one of his palaces, Primakov said: "I told him this 'if you love your country and love your people...and if you want to save your people from these sacrifices, you must leave your post as president of Iraq'."

"I told him that I understood how difficult this proposal was for him and how it could change his life, but that he had to understand that he was doing this for Iraq, for his motherland," Primakov said.

He did not say if he suggested Saddam went into exile or whether he proposed a specific country for him to go to. The Kremlin has always denied Saddam was offered shelter in Russia.

Primakov, who once ran Russia's foreign intelligence service and also served as foreign minister, said Putin called him in the early hours of March 17.

"(Putin) said this work could not be postponed that the plane was already waiting. We left that morning," he said.

It was not Primakov's first such urgent mission to Iraq.

As a Middle East expert and long-time friend of Saddam, he travelled to Baghdad twice in 1990 as part of frantic Soviet efforts to avert a U.S. offensive to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.

He was unsuccessful then as now.

In the current crisis, he also flew in to Baghdad in February, returning with Saddam's reply: "I was born in Iraq and I will die in Iraq."

Looking back on Friday on his March mission, he said the proposal he put to Saddam at first met stony silence.

"First he listened to me, without a word. Then he said that during the first Gulf War we also tried to talk him into something, but a land operation turned out to be unavoidable all the same," Primakov said.

"He then patted me on the shoulder and walked out."

Primakov said Moscow had done all it could to avoid war.

"Russia and Vladimir Putin did everything until the very last moment to prevent this terrible war. Terrible, because it is still not clear what it could bring about."

Russia, which has long-standing ties to Iraq, has consistently opposed using force to topple Saddam.

04/11/03 14:25 ET

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The Russians understood that Gulf War II would also be Berlin Wall II.

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[ozdragon]

Nice story, but is it true or just more Russian revisionism?

[Mr. Lucky]

...is it true...?

That depends upon what the meaning of is is.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

"Russia and Vladimir Putin did everything until the very last moment to prevent this terrible war. Terrible, because it is still not clear what it could bring about."

And just what exactly is it that "pooty put" knows that we don't, as far as "what it could bring about".....

[cynicom]

Russians love dictators, why should they hate Saddam.

[Natural Law]

Even if this is true, the Russians are shocked & awed at the ease and speed at which we succeeded in Iraq. They always believed that we would rely exclusively on airpower (like Kosovo) and were afraid to get down & dirty.

[MrConfettiMan]

Recalling on [American] television [Hillary's] dramatic, last encounter with [Bill] in [the residential suite of the White House], [she] said: "I told him this 'if you love your country and love your people...and if you want to save your people from these sacrifices, you must leave your post as president of [the United States]'."

Continuing, Hillary said, "He laughed at me, turned back to the monster truck rally on the television and said, 'Yeah, right, babe. You better put some ice on that."

[expatpat]

There were rumors to this effect at the time, posted on FR.

[Destro]

No secret. The break up of Iraq- Kurdish - Turkish Wars-Iranains uniting with the Shiite south. Factional fighting. Destabilization. Hell if we don't know this may be a possibility we have idiots in the State Dept.

[RetiredArmy]

The Russians certainly took notice in the first Gulf war how our troops, aircraft, missiles, bombs and equipment did. They noted that we were light-years ahead of them. The Russians soon after fell apart and the USSR was no longer. This war only lets them know how much further they have fallen behind. You can be certain the Red Chinese have sat up and taken notice. The smart bombs certainly have got their attention.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

I was inferring something purely sinister...such as the surprise use of WMD's in the region by Iraqi regime members in hiding....WMD's whose capacity was helped along over the years by Russian companies.

[Natural Law]

You are absolutely right. I was, in part, referring to the Russian military advisors and the subsequent strategies & tactics employed by the Iraqi military. We must make sure that our success is not used as proof by the left that we can and should reduce our military spending and development. The China threat is not going away.

[F.J. Mitchell]

Prevent HELL! France, Russia, Germany, China and Belgium, by their refusal to stand united with the Coalition of reasonable states, in their demand that Saddam and his regime cease, desist and relinquish power,made war unavoidable. THey were and are the problem-the cure happened in spite of them, not because of their meddling. THeir intentions today, are not to support and enable the new freedoms and possibilities now available for Iraq and it's recently freed victems of Saddams Tyranny, but rather to exploit them for personal gain and saddle them with a new slave master.

The Coalition has rescued Iraq from the rapists who abused her, it now has the duty of defending her from the nations that enabled the rape. Russia, France, Germany, Belgium, China and the Arab states, should be forced to register as sex offenders.

[paul51]

He was unsuccessful then as now

Guy doesn't have a very good track record

[holden]

Check your dates, bud. It couldn't have happened as you say.

HF

[lepton]

bookmark bump

[Orion78]

PING!