PARIS — For sale: A palatial pleasure yacht with swimming pools, opulent salons and, should the winds of war blow, a rocket launcher and mini-submarine.
The sale of the 269-foot Ocean Breeze, built for Saddam Hussein and docked on the French Riviera, could be thwarted, however, if Iraq can prove it belongs to someone in the late dictator’s entourage — and now, therefore, to the government in Baghdad.
A court hearing will likely be held in March to determine the rightful owner.
The government in Baghdad suspects the yacht, which French authorities seized on Jan. 31, is still Iraqi. But the posh yacht brokerage firm Nigel Burgess says other owners, whom it will not name, have asked it to sell the vessel. The price has reportedly been set at $35 million.
Viewing is strictly forbidden, but several photos of the interior on the Internet site of Nigel Burgess show an opulent Middle East-style decor in blue and gold hues that match the azure sea at sunset.
A desert fox more than a sailor, Hussein never used the boat he had built in 1981, according to a lawyer representing the Iraqi government, Ardavan Amir-Aslani.
In fact, it barely spent time in Iraqi waters. As war with Iran raged, the vessel was moved to the safety of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port of Jiddah in 1986.
The vessel was originally called “Qadisiyah Saddam.” The name appears to have been an attempt by Hussein to cast his war against Iran in Quranic context, drawing on an epic battle against the Sassanian Persian army that was part of the conquest of the region by the Arab Muslim army around A.D. 630.
Hussein often tried to cast the 8-year-long Iran-Iraq war in religious context, a push to shore up his image as the new Arab and Muslim leader staving off the onslaught of Shiite Persians.
The vessel reportedly remained at Jiddah until last fall, when it showed up in Nice with a new name, “Ocean Breeze,” embossed on its streamlined white hulk, Amir-Aslani said.
According to an account in the French daily Le Figaro, corroborated by Amir-Aslani, the Ocean Breeze, made for a 35-member crew, has about 10 rooms, several salons with large-screen TVs, pools, saunas, gold plumbing fixtures, a prayer room and a portable helicopter pad.
Less glamorous but more telling of Hussein’s real-world concerns are the bulletproof windows, a missile-launching system — disarmed — and a secret passage leading to a mini-submarine for escape if the vessel comes under attack. It was unclear whether the mini-submarine is still part of the yacht, but the Le Figaro account implied that it is.
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