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Senior Iraqi Diplomats Said to Have Defected to US
The Iraqi deputy permanent representative at the United Nations and another senior diplomat in the Iraqi mission have asked the United States for asylum for themselves and their families, diplomatic and police sources confirmed Tuesday in New York.
Police sources, who asked not to be named, identified one asylum seeker as Deputy Ambassador Mohammed al-Humaimidi, the second-highest ranking diplomat in the Iraqi mission here.
Senior diplomatic sources said that Fela Hesan al-Rubaie, a senior counselor and the fourth-highest ranking Iraqi in the mission, also made an asylum request.
The Iraqi diplomats were two of three or four diplomats at the Iraqi mission who were scheduled to return to Iraq this month at the end of their terms, the diplomatic sources said.
Mohammed Aldouri, the Iraqi permanent representative to the United Nations, would neither confirm nor deny the defection, saying that three or four diplomats had ended their terms and Baghdad had applied to the United States for their replacements.
"I don't know which of them stayed in the area, but they finished their terms," he told reporters.
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