LONDON, Dec 28: British diplomats secretly discussed the idea of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein undergoing a back operation in Britain 30 years ago, official files released on Thursday showed.

When the notion was floated in 1975, Saddam Hussein was considered a key figure in the Arab world worth courting and not the international pariah he later became.

The once-secret papers given to Britain’s National Archives after being held for 30 years showed that officials thought the prospects of successfully treating Saddam in Britain for a bad back were ‘most encouraging’.

Foreign Office diplomats noted comments by Finland’s ambassador to Iraq that there was a 90 per cent chance the operation needed by Saddam Hussein would leave him permanently lame.

Officials asked medical advisers to then prime minister Harold Wilson’s government whether the operation could be successfully performed in Britain.

Terry Clark, a senior figure in the Foreign Office’s Middle East department, reported the outcome to John Graham, Britain’s then ambassador to Iraq, in a letter dated Jan 10, 1975.

“I am advised that, if Saddam is suffering from a broken disc pinching the sciatic nerve, there is an operation, by name a laminectomy, regularly and successfully undertaken in various hospitals in the UK, by which there is a very good chance of total recovery,” Terry Clark wrote.

“If the operation fails doctors usually advise a further operation, a spinal fusion. If the latter fails too, it usually means that there has been an erroneous diagnosis in the first place.

“This is all most encouraging and, while I am by no means suggesting that we offer Saddam advice on the availability of such treatment in the UK, you may find the information useful should you ever receive an approach from the Iraqis.—AFP