Tariq Aziz

Iraqi Foreign Minister under Saddam Hussein (1936-2015)

AI overview

Tariq Aziz was Iraq's Foreign Minister during Saddam Hussein's rule, serving as one of the country's most visible diplomats for decades. He matters historically because he represented Iraq during major international events, including the 1990-1991 Gulf War and its aftermath, making him a significant figure in modern Middle Eastern politics.

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Quotes

“These Americans are cowards, because if they were courageous, they would have confronted us face-to-face, rather than coming at us from behind”
“I'm a victim of a criminal act conducted by this party, which is in power right now. So put it on trial. Its leader was the prime minister and his deputy is the prime minister right now and they killed innocent Iraqis in 1980”

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Article

Tariq Aziz (Syriac: ܛܐܪܩ ܥܙܝܙ, Arabic: طارق عزيز Ṭāriq ʿAzīz, 28 April 1936 – 5 June 2015) was an Iraqi politician and journalist who served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq from 1979 to 2003 and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1983 to 1991. He was a close advisor of President Saddam Hussein. Additionally, Aziz was a member of the Revolutionary Command Council and the Regional Command of the Iraqi Branch of the Ba'ath Party. Ethnically Assyrian, he was both an Arab nationalist and a Chaldean Catholic.

His association with Saddam began in the 1950s when both were activists for the then-banned Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. Due to security concerns, Saddam rarely left Iraq, so Aziz would often be Iraq's highest-level representative at international and diplomatic summits. In the year prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Aziz said that the United States did not want "regime change" in Iraq but rather "region change". He said that the Bush administration's reasons for war were "oil and Israel." After surrendering to American forces on 24 April 2003, Aziz was held in prison, first by American forces and subsequently by the new Iraqi government, in Camp Cropper in western Baghdad. He was acquitted at trial of some charges but was later found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to 15 years in 2009 for the executions of 42 merchants found guilty of profiteering in 1992 and another 7 years for relocating Kurds.