Tariq Aziz, Top Aide and Fervent Ally of Saddam Hussein, Dies at 79 [View all]
Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi foreign minister and deputy prime minister who for decades was the most public face of Saddam Hussein’s government on the world stage, died on Friday in Nasiriya, Iraq, where he had been imprisoned. He was 79.
Adel Aldikhaly, the deputy governor of Nasiriya, said Mr. Aziz had had a heart attack after “a long-term incurable disease” and was transferred from prison to a hospital, where he was declared dead.
Mr. Aziz was a committed Arab Nationalist and Baath Party stalwart whose closeness to Mr. Hussein long predated the strongman’s rise to power. It was said that he was so devoted to Mr. Hussein that he would salute when speaking with him on the telephone.
To American and British viewers of television news, he was the familiar and defiant face of a government at war with the West, first in 1991, then during the American-led bombardment and invasion of 2003 — a figure instantly recognizable by his oversize eyeglasses and love of cigars.
Tariq Aziz last month. Mr. Aziz, who had been sentenced to a total of 22 years in prison, was treated this year for a blood clot in the brain.Tariq Aziz, Ex-Aide to Saddam Hussein, Is Sentenced to DieOCT. 26, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/06/world/middleeast/tariq-aziz-imprisoned-deputy-to-saddam-hussein-dies-at-79.html?_r=0
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