World Tribune.com: U.S. changes mind on immunity for Saddam

U.S. changes mind on immunity for Saddam

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM Wednesday, February 5, 2003

LONDON Ñ The United States has apparently withdrawn its offer of immunity for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his aides in exchange for their voluntary exile.

Arab diplomatic sources said senior Bush administration officials refused to relay guarantees that Saddam, his sons and aides would be granted immunity from war crimes prosecution if they enter exile. The sources said the proposed deal has been promoted by Saudi Arabia and Turkey and discussed by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal during his meeting with U.S. President George Bush last week.

"The White House is feeling more confident these days and the immunity idea appeared to have been a sop to deflect Arab and Islamic opposition to an invasion of Iraq," a diplomatic source said. "Now, the administration feels it has enough military and political support so it doesn't have to make any promises."

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The source said the turning point was a U.S. assessment that both France and Russia were reducing or ending their opposition to a war against Iraq. Moscow and Paris had been regarded as leading European supporters of the Saddam regime.

In December, a Saudi envoy briefed Saddam's son and heir-apparent, Qusay, of the exile-for-immunity offer. The sources said Qusay declined the proposal, but did not demand that Saudi Arabia end its diplomatic effort.

The envoy took this as a sign that Saddam was still considering the offer. The sources said the U.S. administration still prefers that Saddam and those running the regime leave Iraq without a fight. But Washington no longer has held out the guarantee of immunity from war crimes.

Last month, Saddam had planned to send an envoy, Ali Hassan Majid, to Cairo to discuss the exile-for-immunity plan. But Majid was not sent amid concern by Baghdad that he would be arrested in Egypt on charges of ordering chemical weapons attacks on Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s.

"This [Saddam's exile] is not a question in Iraq." Iraqi envoy to the United Nations Mohammed Douri told the U.S.-based Fox television news channel. "Never have we had such a question in the past, and we will never have such a question in the future."

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Colin Powell is scheduled to present Washington's case against Saddam to the United Nations Security Council. Powell is expected to maintain that Saddam has links to Al Qaida and continues to conceal weapons of mass destruction.

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