Egypt names new ambassador to Iraq

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Egypt will send an ambassador to Iraq for the first time since their envoy was killed by al Qaeda gunmen in 2005, the Egyptian foreign ministry said on Tuesday. The ministry described Sharif Kamal Shahine as a veteran diplomat, who assumed posts in Tokyo, Athens and Beirut. Sharif Kamal, who is to leave his job as to Zambia, will open the mission “in the coming weeks” accompanied by a diplomatic team, foreign ministry spokesperson Hossam Zaki said in a statement. Zaki described Kamal as a diplomat with 27 years of experience whose appointment is “an important step to promote relations between the two Arab countries”. Cairo has had no official diplomatic representative in Iraq since the July 2005 abduction and murder by Al-Qaeda of its charge d’affaires in Baghdad, Ihab al-Sharif. In October 2008, Ahmed Abul Gheit made the first visit by an Egyptian foreign minister to Iraq in 18 years. The Arab League’s envoy in Baghdad is also Egyptian. SH (P) 1