CAIRO, July 12: Iraq’s former information minister left Baghdad filled with “sadness and hope,” he said in an interview televised on Friday with an Arab station that plans to chronicle the last days of Saddam Hussein’s regime as seen through the eyes of the one-time spokesman for Iraq’s deposed president.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf arrived in Abu Dhabi late Thursday to take part in a series of interviews with the Abu Dhabi satellite station.
The channel on Friday aired a short interview with Mr al- Sahhaf, who received wide attention during the US-led invasion of Iraq for hurling anti-American insults and transparently false claims of stunning Iraqi military victories over coalition forces.
Mr al-Sahhaf “will say things he never said before” about the last days of the regime and the days following its fall, the commentary accompanying Friday programme’s said. It was unclear when any further interviews would be aired.
In the clips of an interview conducted aboard Mr al-Sahhaf’s plane as it left Baghdad, the former Iraqi official said: “This departure is accompanied with mixed feelings. It has sadness and hope.”
“I have many issues that are conflicting in my mind, my consciousness and my thoughts. My only solace is to be optimistic and remain faithful and to side completely with the truth to stay alive and continue working,” he said.
Mr al-Sahhaf disappeared the day Baghdad fell on April 9 and was reportedly hiding in a relative’s home in the Iraqi capital fearing revenge from angry Iraqis. Last month, he said he had turned himself over to coalition forces but was set free. He is not on the list of 55 Iraqi wanted officials. Mr al-Sahhaf, aged in his early 60s, conducted his first TV interviews in Baghdad late last month following Saddam’s ouster.
Abu Dhabi TV’s Baghdad correspondent, Jabir Obeid, said now that Mr al-Sahhaf was out of Iraq, he could speak freely.
“The man was in Baghdad, and Baghdad is still unsafe, and Saddam is still a free man. Al-Sahhaf may say things that might not please Saddam or others of the previous regime,” Obeid said during Friday’s programme. —APP