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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi has approved plan to bury the body of a former top Hussein-era official in Jordan.

Tariq Aziz, known as the face of Saddam Hussein’s regime on the world stage for many years, died in an Iraqi hospital last Friday.

Aziz, 79, served as foreign minister and deputy prime minister and was a close adviser to the former Iraqi dictator.

According to Arab media reports, Abadi approved the plan to bury Aziz in Jordan, however he has said he agree on condition that “the body [be] taken straight from the airport to cemetery and without any parade”.

Reports have indicated that Jordanian authorities have agreed to the plan.

Aziz was sentenced to death by the Iraqi Supreme Court in 2010 for the persecution of religious parties under Hussein’s rule but was never executed.

He surrendered to US troops in 2003 shortly after the fall of Baath Party regime.

He had long been in poor health, suffering from heart and respiratory problems, high blood pressure and diabetes, and his family repeatedly called for his release from custody.

Aziz was a Christian in a mainly Sunni Muslim government; he was not considered a member of Saddam Hussein’s innermost circle.

A fluent English speaker, he played a vocal role before the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

But when Baghdad fell, his lack of influence was reflected in his lowly ranking as the eight of spades in the US military’s famous “deck of cards” used to identify the most-wanted players in Hussein’s regime.

*Bas News