<P> Later that month, Hage met with General Habbush and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz . He was offered top priority to U.S. firms in oil and mining rights, UN-supervised elections, U.S. inspections (with up to 5,000 inspectors), to have al - Qaeda agent Abdul Rahman Yasin (in Iraqi custody since 1994) handed over as a sign of good faith, and to give "full support for any U.S. plan" in the Israeli--Palestinian peace process . They also wished to meet with high - ranking U.S. officials . On 19 February, Hage faxed Maloof his report of the trip . Maloof reports having brought the proposal to Jaymie Duran . The Pentagon denies that either Wolfowitz or Rumsfeld, Duran's bosses, were aware of the plan . </P> <P> On 21 February, Maloof informed Duran in an email that Richard Perle wished to meet with Hage and the Iraqis if the Pentagon would clear it . Duran responded "Mike, working this . Keep this close hold ." On 7 March, Perle met with Hage in Knightsbridge, and stated that he wanted to pursue the matter further with people in Washington (both have acknowledged the meeting). A few days later, he informed Hage that Washington refused to let him meet with Habbush to discuss the offer (Hage stated that Perle's response was "that the consensus in Washington was it was a no - go"). Perle told The Times, "The message was' Tell them that we will see them in Baghdad. ′" </P> <P> George Bush, speaking in October 2002, said that "The stated policy of the United States is regime change...However, if Saddam were to meet all the conditions of the United Nations, the conditions that I have described very clearly in terms that everybody can understand, that in itself will signal the regime has changed". Citing reports from certain intelligence sources, Bush stated on 6 March 2003 that he believed that Saddam was not complying with UN Resolution 1441 . </P> <P> In September 2002, Tony Blair stated, in an answer to a parliamentary question, that "Regime change in Iraq would be a wonderful thing . That is not the purpose of our action; our purpose is to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction ..." In November of that year, Blair further stated that, "So far as our objective, it is disarmament, not régime change--that is our objective . Now I happen to believe the regime of Saddam is a very brutal and repressive regime, I think it does enormous damage to the Iraqi people...so I have got no doubt Saddam is very bad for Iraq, but on the other hand I have got no doubt either that the purpose of our challenge from the United Nations is disarmament of weapons of mass destruction, it is not regime change ." </P>

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