Could Saddam Hussein be striking a last-minute deal?
Iraqi president Saddam Hussein may be negotiating an eleventh-hour deal that could see him exiled to a safe country.
Speculation has rife as to whether Saddam Hussein is dead, alive, staying with his government or fleeing. In the last few minutes Lebanese television has reported that he is in the safety of the Russian embassy.
Al Jazeera's correspondent in Moscow reported earlier today that the Russian delegation that came under fire from US forces as it left Baghdad on 7 April may have been dealing with senior representatives of the Iraqi government in guaranteeing a safe exit for Saddam Hussein.
?This explains the lack of resistance by the Republican Guard and Iraqi forces,? a Russian general told Al-Jazeera on condition of anonymity.
Akram Khouzam, Al-Jazeera?s reporter in Moscow, reports that the general's claim may explain the absence of organised resistance in Iraq, even in the capital itself where communications could not have been disrupted completely.
Baghdad had been expected to put up stiff resistance to the US-led invasion but in the event it appears to have capitulated, with the Iraqi military putting up less opposition than in more poorly defended places such as Umm Qasr and Basra.
Russian intelligence has officially denied reports that diplomats who left Baghdad last week took with them Saddam?s secret archive, saying this allegation was being made to justify the US attack on the diplomatic convoy last week.
However, the Russian general speaking by phone to Al-Jazeera said his claims were based on the cooperation of Saddam and a group of his close officials with the United States during the Iran-Iraq war and encouragement for Saddam to invade Kuwait in 1991.
