Former Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al -Qarbi said that the late President Ali Abdullah Saleh sent a last message to his Iraqi counterpart Saddam Hussein before the American invasion in 2003, in which he invited him to cooperate with the international demands to spare Iraq the aggression, but Saddam replied, saying: “This is the battle of the nation’s dignity and we must pay the price.”
Al -Qirbi added, in the first episode of his dialogue with “Al -Sharq Al -Awsat”, that he visited Baghdad carrying the Yemeni message, and conveyed Saddam’s response to Saleh, who “suffered a lot because he felt that Iraq was going to a catastrophe,” noting that Saddam did not show any flexibility, usually meet the American demands “prejudice to dignity.”
On the personal relationship between Saleh and Saddam, Al -Qirbi said that between them a “special chemistry” and close positions, pointing out that Saddam’s execution “an event had a severe impact” on Saleh who “felt that the execution on the day of Eid involves a spirit of revenge and hatred.”
As for Saleh’s relationship with the Libyan colonel Muammar Gaddafi, Al -Qirbi explained that it was characterized by “political stacks”, adding that “Saleh saw Gaddafi exaggerated in adopting the role of the Arab leader.”
