The US State Department today ordered the expulsion of a diplomat at Iraq's United Nations mission on suspicion of spying on the United States.
The Iraqi was identified as Abdul Rahman I.K. Saad, listed as a first secretary at the mission, who attended meetings on economic and social affairs at the United Nations.
A note was delivered to Iraq's UN mission on the upper East side of New York, asking for the expulsion of the envoy by the end of the month for "activities incompatible with his diplomatic status."
"We expect him to be out by the end of June," said Richard Grenell, spokesman for John Negroponte, the US ambassador to the United Nations.
The usual procedure is to give the diplomat in question 24 hours to reply. He would also have the right to challenge the action, although envoys said few have done that successfully.
The sources said the United States had evidence he was spying but refused to give details. Others said Saad had attempted to recruit Americans.
It is not unusual for Washington to expel a diplomat associated with the United Nations. In March 2001, the United States expelled some 50 Russian diplomats in Washington and New York on suspicion of spying.
But no Iraqi envoy in the United States has been known to be expelled since November 1988, when Washington had diplomatic ties with Baghdad. At that time an Iraqi diplomat in Washington was ordered to leave in retaliation for the ousting of an American diplomat in Baghdad, who had made an unauthorised trip to the Kurdish north.
The United States has not had diplomatic relations with Iraq since Baghdad's troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990. But it permits all members of the United Nations to have a mission in New York for U.N. business.