President of Iraq Saddam Hussein has offered the government of Libya $3.5 billion for political asylum should a US-led Western coalition strike the country. The funds will be deposited into Libyan banks, securing a safe haven for the leader, his family and senior members of the Baghdad regime, reported Times.
Terms of the agreement were disclosed following a visit by Iraqi General Ali Hasan Al-Majd to Tripoli in early September. Iraqi government officials formulated an escape route via Damascus to the North African state last month, the paper reported.
Libyan officials recently denied that it had offered sanctuary to Hussein, accusing the British paper of fabricating the story. Any attempt by Libyan leader Moamer Khadafi to harbor the Iraqi exiles would be countered by immense international pressure to hand them over for war crime trials.
Both Iraq and Libya have been classified by the US administration as “axis of evil” states because they develop weapons of mass destruction and are seeking to obtain chemical or biological weapns. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
