TARIQ MIKHAIL 'AZIZ

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05212485
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: March 16, 2022
• Document Release Date: March 31, 2016
• Case Number: F-2015-01885
• Publication Date: November 2, 1984

Approved for Release: 2016/02/10 C05212485
Tariq Mikhail `AZIZ
(Phonetic: uhZEEZ)
Deputy Prime Minister; Member,
Revolutionary Command Council;
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Addressed as:
Mr. Deputy Prime Minister
Tariq `Aziz is one of President Saddam
Husayn's most trusted advisers and is among the
four most powerful men in Iraq
he is second only to Saddam in formulating
foreign policy and that he is the government's chief
external affairs spokesman and Iraq's primary
contact with high-ranking US and French officials.
He has been a member of the Revolutionary
Command Council (RCC), Iraq's highest governing body, since September 1977; Deputy
Prime Minister since July 1979; and Foreign Minister since January 1983. `Aziz also serves
as the RCC's foreign affairs director. We believe that he enjoys more freedom in his
relationship with Saddam than do other advisers, who may harbor presidential ambitions. (A
Christian, `Aziz is unlikely ever to accede to the presidency of Muslim-dominated Iraq.)
IRAQ
After receiving a B.A. degree in English from the University of Baghdad in 1958, `Aziz
began serving as a propagandist for the Ba`th Party. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he
edited three different party papers, and during 1968-70 he was editor in chief of al-Thawra,
the official party organ. Elected a candidate member of the party's ruling body, the
Regional Command, in 1974, he became a full member three years later. He served as
Minister of Information during 1974-77. `Aziz has made official visits to the Soviet Union,
China, West Germany, France, Egypt, and the United States during the past year. He has
also been involved in recent diplomatic efforts to bring Egypt back into the Arab political
mainstream
`Aziz, who is about 48, is candid and cordial,
He enjoys Cuban cigars. He speaks excellent, almost elegant English. Married, he
has children
CR M 84-15489
20 November 1984
Approved for Release: 2016/02/10 C05212485