November 26, 2002	Tuesday	Ramazan 20, 1423

BAGHDAD: Chief UN inspector Hans Blix may go down in history, art history, if his much-awaited report confirms that Iraq has none of the weapons of mass destruction claimed by the United States.

“If the report is positive and brings good news to Iraq, then I will draw a portrait of Blix with our president Saddam Hussein,” said Salam Abid, one of the main Saddam portrait artists in the country.

“Good news” for Iraq, and Saddam personally, means the United Nations declaring Iraq free of arms of mass destruction, as stipulated by UN Security Council Resolution 1441 which threatens Baghdad with “serious consequences” otherwise.

Saddam is a favourite model for portrait artists happy to hear that Blix is due to launch arms inspections in Iraq on Wednesday after a four-year break, and that Washington said it might consent to Saddam staying in power if he agrees to give up suspected banned weapons.

“I have been painting portraits of the president since 1976, but I have never painted him with anybody else — except a few times with his sons Uday and Qusay,” said 47-year-old Abid.

“So if the Blix report is positive, I could make an exception if I am given the permission” by Iraqi authorities, said Abid with a broad smile under his thick black moustache.

Abid explains that he has painted hundreds of large portraits and murals of Saddam, who has been president since 1979, some of them of gigantic proportions of up to 3.5 by 2.5 meters (11 ft 6 in by 8 ft 3 in).

They are among the millions of portraits and statues of the Iraqi president adorning building facades, office walls, sitting rooms, roads and highways.

The personality cult clearly strikes newcomers in a myriad of oil paintings, neon-lit prints, sculptures and statues of various styles and sizes.

Depending on where the portrait or the statue is erected, Saddam appears either smiling or serious, wearing army fatigues or western-style suits, sitting on a horse or toting a rifle.

There are even exhibitions and competitions of his hand-painted portraits which allow artists to win prizes, gifts and cash.

It may not raise fortunes, but the demand seems to be so strong that what usually starts as an artistic hobby eventually turns into a full-time job.

In a nearby advertising company, Mohammed Abbas Fadel sits proudly behind a desk surrounded by brightly-lit portraits of the president.—AFP