Ailing Iraqi President hands over power

Press, 18 July 1979, Page 8

Ailing Iraqi President hands over power

NZPA-Reuter a. Bagdad Si.ddam Hussein, who has tirtually ruled.lraq in recent nonths, has been appointed President after the ailing President Ahmed Hassan Bakr, designed on Monday jecauotof ill ’Tiealth. Mr Hussein, who , is i key figure in current efforts to merge Iraq with teighbouring Syria to form a tingle powerful Arab State, ritomatically becomes chairnan of the country’s ruling {evolutionary, Command Council He has been vicethairman for the last 10 tears.

President Bakr, a 67-year-tld former Army general, Isclosed in a televised troadcast that Mr Hussein tad been carrying the burjen of leadership for some fme.

He said he was resigning tf-cause his health had decriorated to the point where le could no longer shoulder lis responsibilities. He did r>t specify the nature of his finest. Mr Hussein, who was tlected secretary-general of he Baath Party after it eized power in 1968, seems 11likely to announce any big : tulicy changes in Iraq, onej

of the world’s largest oil producers. The council said in a statement later that it would follow the same principles which had guided policymaking under President Bakr. The move coincided with the eleventh anniversary of the coup d’etat which brought Mr Bakr and his supporters in the 1 Arab Baath Socialist Party to power. Several Ministries were merged in the Cabinet reshuffle announced by the Revolutionary Command Council. The former Interior "Minister. Izzat Ibrahim, was appointed Mr Hussein’s successor as vice-chairman of the ruling council. Other changes in the enlarged 31-man Government included the transfer of the Housing and Reconstruction Minister, Taha Yassin Rama- 1 dan, to the new post of first Deputy Prime Minister. < Mr Hussein, who comes i from a peasant family north of Bagdad, is regarded as an i able politician and is re- : spected for his pragmatism [and personal courage. i j He was imprisoned twice i

for political action under previous military regimes. Appointed vice-chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council in 1969, he later intiated a rapproachment between Iraq and the Soviet Union which led to the signing of Moscow’s only friendship treaty with an Arab country.