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U.S. Mulling Plans To Exile Saddam: Report
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| Saddam dismissed all suggestions to go into exile to avoid war |
LONDON,
September 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The United States
and a number of Arab countries have drawn up plans for the exile of
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to a neutral country to avoid an
invasion that could lead to massive number of civilian deaths, a U.K.
newspaper reported Sunday, September 29.
The
Independent said that Saddam has angrily dismissed such
suggestions – made to him by third parties.
“We
have to look at all scenarios,” a senior State Department official
told the Independent on Sunday. “We are still trying to sort
it out.”
He
added that if the exile option could be shown to prevent a massive
loss of civilian life as the result of a military operation, and that
power was ceded to a truly alternative government, it would be
considered. “There would have to be real change. He could not simply
hand over to his son,” he said, reported the Independent.
The
Independent quoted a U.S. sources suggesting that Algeria,
Mauritania, North Korea and China are countries who might be willing
to take Saddam, adding that China would do it to anger the United
States.
According
to the paper, Saddam angrily asked Qatar’s Foreign Minister, Hamad
Al Thani, to leave when in a recent meeting in August, the Minister
raised the prospect with him.
Meanwhile,
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that the commander of U.S. forces
in the Gulf says his men are ready for action if the order is given to
strike Iraq, but officials in the region are decidedly less talkative
about their military preparations.
Qatar
has emerged as a likely key launch pad for a strike whose avowed goal
would be to rid Iraq, and its oil-rich neighborhood, of the “grave
and gathering danger” posed by Saddam Hussein, as U.S. President
George W. Bush has put it.
And
more U.S. military equipment is pouring into Kuwait, where General
Tommy Franks said on September 21 that U.S. forces were “prepared to
undertake whatever ... actions we may be directed to take by our
nation,” presumably using the emirate’s soil, which already hosts
some 10,000 U.S. troops.
Bahrain,
home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, can also expect to be used as a
springboard for U.S.-led attacks whatever its leaders might have to
say about it, and Washington is probably counting on Oman’s
pro-Western ruler Sultan Qaboos to get on board too.
Saudi
Arabia, the region’s heavyweight, which served as a base for the
U.S.-led coalition that drove Iraqi troops from Kuwait in the 1991
Gulf War, is officially saying it will cooperate with a strike only if
it is carried out under a U.N. banner.
“There’s
nothing unusual at the Prince Sultan air base” in Al-Kharj, 80
kilometers south of Riyadh, where most of the U.S. military personnel
deployed in Saudi Arabia are stationed, a Riyadh-based Western
diplomat said.
“We
haven’t noticed an increase in the number of U.S. and British troops
or aircraft,” used to enforce a “no-fly” zone over southern
Iraq, he told AFP.
His
assessment echoed that of a senior Bahraini official, who told AFP on
condition of anonymity that the archipelago had not seen an influx of
additional U.S. military gear or troops, of which there are already
plenty in the region.
An
estimated 5,000 to 6,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Saudi Arabia,
according to Western diplomats, though unofficial sources say the
figure would be many thousands more if their civilian backup is
included. Some 2,000 British troops are also deployed in
the kingdom.
The
al-Udeid base, 35 kilometers south of Doha, could serve as an
alternative to the Prince Sultan facility, and the tiny Gulf state
might end up hosting the headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, now
in Tampa, Florida.
While
Washington mulls such a move, 600 headquarters staff and a mobile
headquarters are due in Qatar for an exercise in November, and may
remain there beyond the war games, according to U.S. officials.
The
official line in Qatar is that Doha would “consider” a request
from the United States to use its soil as a launch pad for a war on
Iraq if and when it got one.
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