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Arabia
Iraqi ambassador denies seeking asylum in Yemen
2003-04-15
Iraq's ambassador to the Arab League denied on Monday he had sought asylum in Yemen, saying he would continue representing Iraq in the League. "I am still at the League to express the interests of the Iraqi people," Mohsen Khalil told reporters after a meeting of the permanent representatives to the league, which focussed on the situation in Iraq.
"I mean, I've been doing such a good job of it, I'm sure they'll want me to stay on and keep sending me paychecks..."
Khalil said he had urged the 22-member body to "move quickly to achieve stability in Iraq and to end the state of looting and destruction under the eyes of the occupying forces."
Can't see as the Arab League has any say in it...
Khalil, a former press secretary to President Saddam Hussein, has been an ardent supporter of Saddam's government. As late as Monday last week, as US tanks were moving through Baghdad, he told a press conference in Cairo that Iraq was winning the war.
At least, he hoped it was...
A Yemeni Foreign Ministry official said on Sunday that Khalil had applied for asylum to the Yemeni consulate in Cairo on last Wednesday — the day Baghdad fell to US forces. "We have agreed to host him (Khalil) as a guest in Yemen and we anticipate his arrival within 24 hours," the official told The Associated Press on Sunday. But the Yemeni ambassador to the league, Abdel-Wali al-Shumeiry, said he had no knowledge of Khalil's request for asylum.

It's not surprising to see that the bragadoccio's not gone with the regime. The idea that the new Iraq is going to retain a Baathist party hack as its spokesman to the Arab League, which Arabs pretend to take seriously, must be laughable even in Cairo. Next step is probably a forcible removal from his offices by representatives of the new regime. If he's lucky, maybe they can have a shootout.
Posted by:Fred Pruitt

#4  If we want him somewhere totally ineffective, we could always make him the Supreme Arab League ambassador to the Axis of Weasels.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2003-04-15 23:26:39  

#3  That's "iNNeFective"... with one n and two fs. Aargh!
Posted by: Old Grouch   2003-04-15 19:42:28  

#2  
"The idea that the new Iraq is going to retain a Baathist party hack as its spokesman to the Arab League, which Arabs pretend to take seriously, must be laughable even in Cairo."
Oh I don't know... some innefective organization might be a good place for him. Keep him out of trouble.
Say-- how about UN ambassador?
Posted by: Old Grouch   2003-04-15 19:36:46  

#1  Ha...fools! I'm not hiding in Yemen, I'm hiding in Egypt.
Posted by: Rex Mundi   2003-04-15 18:42:10  

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