Arab countries, Turkey persuading Saddam to go into exile

He hinted that Iraq’s Arab neighbours would push for a non-military end to the standoff even if the UN votes at the end of this month to confirm that Iraq has defied an ultimatum to disarm.
"Even if the Security Council issues a unanimous decision to attack Iraq, we hope chance will be given to the Arab states to find a political solution to this issue," he said during a visit to Sudan.
Qatar, which reportedly floated an exit strategy for Saddam in August last year, is now pressing for an emergency meeting of the 22-nation Arab League, which many believe would have the exile question as its top agenda item.
Meanwhile, Russia, Belarus and Iran have officially denied they are considering giving him asylum if he agrees to give up power.
But Arab diplomats say the question of where to place Saddam is far less pressing than the question whether he will voluntarily cede power.
"If Saddam ever agreed to leave, we will find a place for him. That would not be a problem," said an Arab diplomat.
However, an Iraqi Minister who sugested Saddam at least pretend to consider an Iranian demand to resign during their 1980s war was summarily shot.
Both US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the State Department have endorsed the idea of exile for Saddam.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi yesterday dismissed as "groundless rumours" an account in the newspaper Entekhab that he had been told by German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer that the U.S. and Russia have agreed on the outlines of a "bloodless coup" to remove Saddam from power.
Dismissing all these rumours, the State-run Iraqi newspaper Al-Iraq said: "The truth of the matter is that Bush wanted to cool down the climate after the rise of temperature of global public anger over his treats and preparations for aggression against Iraq.