Pakistan has been invited to join a reported initiative by several Arab and other states to persuade Iraqi President Saddam Hussain to go into exile to avert a U.S.-led invasion, official sources said yesterday.
The multi-national effort involves Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Iran, they said. "Pakistan has been asked by friendly Muslim states to join these efforts to avoid war in Iraq," a close aide to Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali said.
Jamali is expected to embark next week on a tour of Gulf countries including the UAE for consultations with their leaders, foreign ministry sources said.
"The proposal and what role Pakistan can play will come under discussion during the tour, " an official said. The idea is that Muslim countries should convince President Saddam to leave the country in return for assurances that he would not be prosecuted, the Jamali aide said.
The initiative came under discussion between Jamali and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah when the Pakistani Prime Minister visited the kingdom early this month, the sources said.
It is likely that the Muslim countries may consider sending a top-level delegation to Baghdad for a face-to-face meeting with Saddam.
Iraqi authorities this week refuted that any proposal for Saddam to leave the country was under discussion. Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan Al Majid said yesterday that such reports were "stupidities."
"These are stupidities ... and one of the methods of psychological warfare against Iraq," Majid, a member of Iraq's decision-making Revolution Command Council, told Al Jazeera television from Damascus.
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said on January 13 that Saddam "will never leave his country but will stay there until the last Iraqi shot is fired."
Thousands of Pakistanis meanwhile chanting anti-U.S. slogans staged rallies in major cities yesterday and demanded an end to "aggressive" U.S. plans against Iraq.
More than 1,000 people including hundreds of school children released pigeons and formed a human chain in Rawalpindi, the twin city to Islamabad.
The banners held by them read: "No war on Iraq in the name of fighting terrorism;" "American imperialism is brutal and mad;" "The U.S. has the maximum weapons of mass destruction;" and "We are united against war." Children waved paper doves symbolising peace.
Around 500 peace activists from different political and social organisations marched in Lahore, capital of Punjab province, to denounce "U.S. aggressive designs against Iraq."
Armed police kept the slogan-shouting demonstrators away the heavily-guarded U.S. consulate building, witnesses said.
Later, police permitted five demonstrators to present a statement to the consulate against possible U.S. military action against Iraq.
In Pakistan's largest city of Karachi around 200 anti-war activists held a demonstration shouting slogans such as "Down with U.S. imperialism" and "Death to America," witnesses said. The demonstrators later formed a human chain to express solidarity against war.
Gulf News 2003
