In February and March 2003, he visited Iraq and talked with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, as a special representative of President Putin. He brought to Baghdad a message from Putin to call for Saddam to resign voluntarily. He tried to prevent the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, a move which received some support from several nations opposed to the war. Primakov suggested that Saddam must hand over all Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to the United Nations, among other things. However, the Iraqi leader told Primakov he was confident that no harm would befall him personally—a belief that was later proven incorrect. Primakov later claimed Saddam's execution in 2006 was rushed to prevent him from revealing information on Iraq–United States relations that could embarrass the U.S. government.