Saddam Rejects Rumsfeld
Request To Stop Resistance
7-1-5
LONDON (UPI) -- Toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has refused to meet U.S.
officials as a prisoner, but only as the president of Iraq, it was reported
Wednesday.
The London-based al-Quds al-Arabi quoted unidentified sources close to Saddam
and his lawyers as saying the former leader turned down an offer by U.S.
Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld to urge the resistance to put down their
arms in return for preventing the court from sentencing him to death.
One of Saddam's lawyers told the independent Palestinian-owned daily Saddam
had rejected the offer and refuses to meet any U.S. officials as a prisoner,
"but only as the president of Iraq and after the American withdrawal" from the
country.
The lawyer also said Saddam informed him the "American occupation forces will
have to negotiate with the honorable Iraqis, and the enemy will open its hand
for peace and understanding."
