Bad advice

last updated 8 January 2015

Baghdad

France and Russia convinced Saddam Hussein that he could survive a U.S. invasion, former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz has told U.S. interrogators. French and Russian diplomats first assured Saddam that they would block the war using their vetoes on the U.N. Security Council, Aziz claimed. Later, they told him that he could ride out the first wave of an air war while they worked to broker a cease-fire. France and Russia did their best for Saddam, Aziz said, but failed to anticipate the intensity of the U.S. strike. U.S. officials who have been debriefing Aziz told The Washington Post that no other sources had corroborated Aziz’s account of the French and Russian roles. It’s possible, they said, that Aziz may simply be dishing dirt because he thinks that’s what the Americans want to hear.