IRAQ-AZIZ/REAX Doctor confirms Tariq Aziz died of heart attack

Record ID: 150164

  • Title: IRAQ-AZIZ/REAX Doctor confirms Tariq Aziz died of heart attack
  • Date: 5th June 2015
  • Summary: AL-NASIRIYAH, IRAQ (JUNE 5, 2015) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (AGENCY POOL) EXTERIOR OF AL-HUSSEIN HOSPITAL IN NASIRIYAH WITH SECURITY FORCES GUARDING IT SIGN READING (Arabic): "FORENSIC MEDICINE DEPARTMENT" SECURITY FORCES STANDING OUTSIDE HOSPITAL (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) DIRECTOR OF AL-HUSSEIN GENERAL HOSPITAL, DR. SAADI AL-MAJED, SAYING: "Today at three o'clock, Tariq Aziz arrived fr
  • Embargoed: 20th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVADVCI9B9W5XO4DIHWIMF366B5Z
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    An Iraqi doctor has confirmed that former foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, died in hospital on Friday (June 5).
    Aziz, who suffered a stroke in detention and frequently complained of ill health, passed away after a heart attack in Iraq's southern Dhi Qar governorate.
    "Today at three o'clock, Tariq Aziz arrived from al-Nasiriyah prison at the emergency department of al-Hussein hospital. He suffered a severe heart attack that paralysed his heart. His health situation deteriorated quickly, first aid did not help and he passed away," said the director of al-Hussein Hospital, Dr. Saadi al-Majed.
    The governor of Dhi Qar, Yahya al-Nasiri, said the body would be handed over to Aziz's relatives in Iraq "as soon as our routine procedures and investigations are concluded".
    Aziz's son Zaid told Reuters in Amman that Aziz's wife had visited him in prison on Thursday and had asked the prison authorities to take him to hospital. He said the prison had refused, though this could not be confirmed independently.
    Aziz played a prominent diplomatic role in the run-up to the 1991 Gulf War, when a U.S.-led coalition drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait, as well as in the long-running disputes over United Nations weapons inspections in subsequent years.
    Deploying excellent English and well-honed negotiating skills, he impressed opponents as well as supporters, even if he failed to prevent war in 2003.
    On the streets of Baghdad on Friday, one man said Aziz had the type of skills Iraq desperately needed.
    "He had strong ties with foreign and European countries. He could have been of benefit at this time. If the government had made use of his expertise and his long-term in government, Iraq would have been benefited. We are in need of an academic person like him, we are in need of such a person who used to have good ties and who could have restored them," said Mohammed.
    A Chaldean Christian, Aziz was outside Saddam's tight-knit Sunni Muslim clan from the city of Tikrit, but his allegiance was rarely questioned.
    His long survival in Iraq's brutal autocracy - where any hint of disloyalty could mean death even for Saddam's most senior lieutenants - was attributed to his roots in a powerless minority which could never challenge the president.
    His rise to international prominence was sealed in 1990, when Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait and he became the public face of Saddam's unflinching international diplomacy.
    "He was a politician and not a fighter and he did not follow a policy of terrorism or suppression. But he was polishing the image of the regime in the Arab and western worlds. For me, I consider him the ambassador of Saddam's Baath party to the world," said Baghdad resident, Hashim al-Awadi.
    Aziz's association with Saddam dated back to the 1950s, when the two men were involved in the then-outlawed Baath party, which sought to oust the British-backed monarchy.
    Despite his high ranking, he never elicited the degree of contempt reserved for other regime figures, such as Ezzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Saddam's former right-hand man and a leader of Iraq's Sunni insurgency.
    "I heard the news of his death. It makes no impact on Iraq unlike the news of the death of Ezzat al-Douri because he (Aziz) was a man of diplomacy and not a man of war."
    Aziz, who surrendered to the United States just two weeks after Saddam's overthrow, was jailed for his role in executions as well as the forced displacement of Kurds, before being sentenced to death in 2010 over the persecution of Islamic parties under Saddam.
    That sentence was never carried out.
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