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The execution of the Observer journalist Farzad Bazoft on 15 March 1990, ordered by Saddam Hussein, provoked outrage around the world. Yet later that same day Margaret Thatcher and her government decided not to take any action, against what ministers admitted was a “ruthless” regime, for fear of jeopardising lucrative exports to Iraq.In memos written two years after Saddam used mustard gas to slaughter more than 3,000 Kurds and only months before he marched into Kuwait, sparking war, newly released cabinet documents reveal that trade was still the uppermost concern for ministers.
