The regime of Saddam Hussein had good relations with the GDR on the Eastern side of the wall. In 1969, Iraq was the first non-socialist republic to recognize the new German state. Erich Honecker, the Eastern German leader, was even guest of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad to discuss warfare agreements as cooperation between the two countries also included support for the development of chemical and biological weapons, as reported by the German journal Der Spiegel in 1990. This good diplomatic relationship didn't persist after the fall of the wall. After suspicions of arms trafficking inside the embassy, the government of the newly unified Germany demanded the departure of staff in 1991, just before the end of the Gulf War, forcing employees to leave the building as quickly as possible. After that, the compound fell into a legal limbo. Technically, the 5.000 m² building belongs to the German Government, but the Republic of Iraq has the right to "perpetual use" of the premise (a right that embassies and official representations usually own), thus preventing the authorities from the European country to put the building down or renovate it. While the situation is not solved, the building remains abandoned. Regimes might fall, countries might reunite but in this place, chairs, shelves, telephones and typewriters remain as witnesses of the inexorable passage of time, while the concrete gradually dwindles.