Iraqi embassy spokesman confirms that five Iraqi diplomats left Jordan after being expelled

CAPITALS, March 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – While most countries around the world rejected the call made on Thursday, March 20, by the United States to expel Iraqi diplomats, some countries bowed to the orders.

Italy expelled four Iraqi diplomats, the Italian news agency ANSA reported, citing foreign ministry sources in Rome, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The four unidentified diplomats were asked to leave as soon as possible and had already left the country, the news agency said, citing the sources.

The expulsions, if confirmed, follow a U.S. request on Thursday, March 20, to countries around the world to break off ties with representatives of the government of President Saddam Hussein in Baghdad.

Several European countries which oppose the U.S.-led military campaign in Iraq, including France and Germany, refused.

Italy, a staunch supporter of Washington, said through its Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Friday, March 21, only that it was "evaluating" the U.S. request.

The identities of the four and their positions at the Iraqi mission in Rome were not immediately made known, but were not believed to include the head of the mission.

The Vatican said at the weekend that it would not expel Iraqi diplomats accredited to the Holy See.

Meanwhile, five Iraqi embassy personnel left Jordan Sunday after being expelled for "undermining state security".

Expulsion Not Related To U.S. Calls

Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher denied the expulsion had anything to do with the U.S. calls.

"Jordan decided to expel four Iraqi diplomats and an embassy administrative employee for security reasons, not political ones," Moasher told AFP.

"Their activities were in violation of international norms and undermined state security in Jordan.

"The United States did not ask Jordan to expel the Iraqi ambassador or to close the Iraqi embassy in Jordan and, even if they had made such a request, it would not have affected our decision.

"This has nothing to do with the American position," the foreign minister said.

Iraqi press attaché Jawad al-Ali told AFP the five embassy staff had left Jordan after being ordered out the previous day.

"The Jordanian foreign ministry informed us Saturday that they considered five Iraqi diplomats persona non grata and that they must leave within 24 hours. They left this morning (Sunday)."

Ali identified the five as commercial counselor Ali Jomaa, deputy cultural attaché Kassem al-Issawi and consulate employees Ghazi Khalil, Abdel Wahab al-Mashhadani and Abdel Razak Ayad.

"When they were informed that they were being expelled from Jordan, the Iraqi diplomats were so happy that they did not wait for the end of the deadline and left within 12 hours."

The attaché said 35 diplomats now remained at the Iraqi embassy, including ambassador Sabah Yassin who headed to Egypt Saturday to join Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri for an Arab League meeting on Iraq.

Australia Too

Iraqi diplomats, also expelled by Australia, were due to leave on Sunday while Canberra was examining whether it could freeze assets of the closed Iraqi embassy, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Sunday.

Iraq's principal envoy, charge d'affaires Dr. Saad al-Samarai, and other embassy staff were heading for Marrakech, Morocco, before continuing to Syria's capital Damascus, Downer said.

The embassy's closure follows the expulsion earlier this month of Iraqi attaché Helal Aaref, who was “suspected” by Australia's domestic spy agency ASIO of being an Iraqi intelligence officer.

"They have had to wind up their affairs and we have given them time to do that," Downer told reporters in Adelaide. "They will be leaving Australia during the course of this afternoon.

"These are people who worked for the regime of Saddam Hussein."

The government was also "looking into" freezing Iraqi embassy assets, he said.
"We have to look at this in the context of Australian law," Downer said.

"The Iraqi's will obviously owe money in one way or another to Australian creditors and that's a factor that has to be taken into consideration.

"We would guess that their assets would not be considerable, we assume the assets of the embassy would be pretty modest."

Not Under Consideration

However, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher had said Saturday, March 22, that Washington's demand to states worldwide to expel Iraq's diplomats is "not under consideration."

"That's absolutely not under consideration," he told reporters.

In Beirut press reports said Lebanon had also refused to kick out the six Iraqi diplomats posted in the country or to freeze Iraqi assets in Lebanese banks reportedly amounting to some one billion dollars.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Haid-Reza Asefi, quoted by the official IRNA news agency, said Iran had an independent policy and would not take any decision to expel Iraqi diplomats or close Baghdad's embassy.

Following the U.S.'s call on Thursday, March 20 to expel the Iraqi diplomats, many countries around the world turned down the request prompting Washington to shrug off their resistance.

Strong anti-war governments such as those in France, Germany, and Russia rejected the request to close Iraq's embassies and expel its diplomats until new authorities were in power in Baghdad.

The Netherlands, Poland and Portugal, which the United States has identified as members of a "coalition of the willing" backing the war in Iraq, also turned down the request.

"France believes this request is a matter of sovereignty. At the moment there is no reason to respond positively," said French foreign ministry spokesman Francois Rivasseau.

Germany has "no current plans" to comply with the U.S. request, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday, although Berlin this week ordered the expulsion of four Iraqi diplomats for activities "incompatible with their diplomatic status" -- a euphemism for spying.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov meanwhile said on Friday that Moscow would refuse any U.S. demands to expel Iraqi diplomats, but that it had yet to receive an official request.

Malaysia also rejected the U.S. demands on Friday while Thailand's foreign ministry, yet to receive a request, questioned whether such actions would be legal.

"How can assets of the embassy of Iraq be seized? It's not legal, we have relations," said a foreign ministry spokesman.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Friday dismissed the resistance to Washington's request.

"That is their choice," Powell told reporters when asked about the refusal of at least seven nations to accede to the U.S. call.

"We believe that, as we watch this regime come to an end, it would be appropriate to let all of our friends know that it was time to cease the activity of the Iraqi missions in their countries," he said.

Several countries that have broadly supported the U.S.-led campaign to wage war against Iraq held firm in the face of Washington's requests.

Portugal, a strong backer of U.S. policy on Iraq, said on Friday that it would not expel Iraqi diplomats as requested by Washington.

"We do not intend to close Iraq's embassy nor are there any motives to expel the Iraqi diplomats," Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso said at a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.

The Netherlands, which also backs the United States over Iraq, rejected the request as groundless, while Poland rejected it on Thursday as "unjustified".

"Embassies represent not only the leaders of these countries but also the nations, and Iraqi nationals also live in Poland," said Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski.

Algeria, Kenya and Sweden also turned down the U.S. demands.