India"Escape Route"for Saddam?

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U.S. Suggested India as "Escape Route" for Saddam: Report

 

Friday, January 24 2003 @ 09:04 AM GMT

 

"'India is the only location Saddam can be exiled where he cannot be

a potential threat unlike any other country,' TOI quoted an official

as saying .."

 

NEW DELHY - The United States has offered Iraqi President Saddam

Hussein an "escape route" exile to neutral India, an influential

Indian newspaper disclosed Thursday, January 23, on its website.

 

A "neutral" territory for

Saddam has been passed to

the Iraqi regime by the

U.S. Central Intelligence

Agency (CIA

 

 

Quoting "highly placed government sources" in Delhi, India's

influential newspaper, Times of India (TOI), said the proposal of

India as a "neutral" territory for Saddam has been passed to the

Iraqi regime by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

 

While no official response has been forthcoming from India, the

London office of RAW, the Indian equivalent of the CIA, has been

informed of the suggestion, the paper said.

 

"India is the only location Saddam can be exiled where he cannot be a

potential threat unlike any other country," TOI quoted an official as

saying.

 

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had recently suggested that

Saddam should go into exile to avoid military action against Iraq,

saying that it would be a "fair trade" to avoid military showdown.

 

While it is unlikely that Saddam will accept any U.S. proposal to go

into exile, his government has reportedly been told that if he

accepts exile, he will be allowed to retire into oblivion peacefully.

 

India, with a history of very cordial relations with Iraq, has been

firmly opposing any unilateral military action against the country.

 

External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha has said that no country has

the authority to change any regime anywhere, however mighty it was,

while advocating a peaceful resolution to the U.S.-Iraq stand-off.

 

The Iraqi ambassador to India has lately been speaking to the Indian

media about the positive role that India has been playing in its

support for Iraq.

 

In a related development, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak repudiated

Thursday media reports of an Arab initiative asking Saddam to step

down or take residence in an Arab country.

 

On Tuesday, December 24, Saudi Arabia denied reports it had advised

Saddam to step down in order to avert a U.S.-led war.

 

"Contacts with Iraq by Saudi Arabia and all Arab countries have

continued. We have not asked the Iraqi leadership to step down, maybe

other Arab states did," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal

told a press conference.

 

But the chief diplomat of the oil-rich kingdom declined to answer a

question on whether Riyadh would grant Saddam political asylum if he

quit power.

 

Earlier reports said Saddam would be exiled to an African country.

Libya was mentioned as a possible destination, but Tripoli denied any

such move.

 

-[islamOnline (islamonline.net).] Published at the Palestine

Chronicle.