http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0302/S00211.htm
Howard's End: Russia Provides Iraq a Lifeboat Friday, 28 February 2003, 10:54 am Column: Maree Howard
Howard's End: Russia Provides Iraq a Lifeboat Scoop's Middle-East intelligence sources are reporting that Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has stepped into the bipolar crisis over Iraq between US-led and French-led world blocs with a proposition to avert the war and provide Saddam Hussein with a life-boat. Maree Howard writes. Last Saturday, Moscow diplomatic heavy-weight Yevgeny Primakov, resident KGB chief in the Middle East during the 1970's and Soviet Foreign Minister and Russian Prime Minister under Boris Yeltsin, landed in Baghdad. Primakov is also a close personal friend of Saddam Hussein from the old days of the Soviet Union. Scoop's sources report that Primakv spent 10 hours last Sunday with the Iraqi leader at his palace in Tikrit, flying home on Monday after meeting with Hussein for a final conversation. The Baghdad dialogue must have borne fruit because by Wednesday German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, made a lightening and unscheduled visit to Moscow heading back home the same evening. Apparently Putin, Chirac, and Schroeder want a proposal in place prior to the vital UN Security Council vote expected on 7 March. Primakov delivered Putin's proposal which would see Saddam Hussein save himself from obliteration - although he would have to leave Baghdad with his family and his ruling clique but would not be pushed completely out of the Iraqi political scene. Scoop's sources say the high points of the plan are: Acceptance of the plan by Hussein and Washington - with UN endorsement - will result in the US calling off its war offensive against Iraq; Saddam Hussein will be required to immediately dismantle and destroy all his WMD, that arsenal being checked against Russia's lists and compared with American data; ( Incidentally, Russian military and intelligence staff have maintained throughout that Iraq does not possess a single WMD) Saddam stays on as President for about one year; In the course of of the disarmament process, a transitional government will be established in Baghdad with no affinity to the ruling Baath Party or Saddam's ruling elite. The transitional government will officiate for one year under international oversight, draft a new Iraqi constitution and arrange a general election; The election over, Saddam will retire and make way for the newly-elected regime; He and his family, together with his top political and military circle, will move out of Baghdad and take up residence at an internaionally protected palace compound near Tharthar Lake north of Tikrit. He will be allowed to move in and out of this palace under restrictions. He is guaranteed not to be a prisoner. Apparently, Primakov also emphasised that the fortune Saddam Hussein has stashed away in foreign banks will not be impounded or frozen which will give him some influence in the country and would retain the financial wherewithal to be a bit-player in Iraqi politics. It is unknown at this point whether Saddam Hussein has accepted the proposal but upon his return to Moscow, Primakov immediately briefed Putin. Scoop's sources also report that by Tuesday two Russian emissaries headed out of Moscow to Washington and Paris to brief Bush and Chirac and to test the water for a sign that Putin's plan was worth pursuing. Putin's plan also came up in talks with US Under-Secretary of State John Bolton held with Russian officials last Monday in Moscow after which Bolton announced that he had been unable to convince his hosts to back a US-led UN Security Council resolution authorising force against Iraq. The diplomatic flurry of activity is said to have encouraged Saddam Hussein to beleive that he has between two and three weeks to play with before deciding which way to jump to survive. What happens between now and the vital UN Security Council vote expected on 7 March will be fascinating to watch but keep your eye on events surrounding the high points of the Putin proposal.
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