Mustafa Barzani had lived many of his years away from the Kurdish homeland, instead taking refuge in Uzbekistan under the eye of First Secretary Usman Yusupov. Unfortunately the rivalry between his previous host (Mir Jafar Baghirov, the First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party) and Barzani himself spilled over into Uzbekistan causing his supporters to be divided and separate from each other. Despite this Barzani had a plan, he had already purchased a fake passport and alias from some of his friends in Uzbekistan, taking the name Saddam Al-Mukhtar and shaving off his hair to fully dispel any notions that he is Barzani. With only his passport and a small amount of money to his name, Barzani left with some of his closest advisors to Tashkent Northern Railway Station and booked a ticket to Armenia. There were many steps on the way but Barzani looked nothing like he usually did and many thought he was just an Iraqi communist travelling through the USSR.

On entering Armenia he had a choice to make, he either went through Turkey to Iraq or he went through Iran. Iran had previously attempted to kill Barzani so there was danger if he entered. Turkey on the other hand had Kurdish comrades within it, but the Turks were highly against any form of Kurdish liberation or autonomy. Barzani decided to head through Iran under his assumed guise of the dim-witted Saddam Al-Mukhtar, an Iraqi tribal farmer. On entering Iran his companions dressed in full Burka's to make it look like they were merely his wives and not Kurdish revolutionaries. They would stay in the rural areas, avoiding any Iranian patrols and any checkpoints that they may come across. If they were to come across anyone who questioned them, Barzani would pretended to be unintelligent and simple, merely travelling to get back home to his tribe and to his children. His 'wives' will not be allowed to talk so that they are not found out to be Kurdish men.

If all went well and Barzani went through Iran without being found out, he would head to Iraqi Kurdistan and try to sneak through the border. In Iran he would purchase (or steal) some goats so that his cover story continued to look realistic and that his dim-witted personality would only be advanced by his goat farmer look.