Egyptian FM says new amb. to be sent to Iraq within days

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit said a new ambassador would be sent to Iraq within the next few days, noting the higher joint committee will convene early next month, prior to a scheduled visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to Cairo, according to an Egyptian weekly magazine. “The Egyptian ambassador will be sent to Baghdad in days within preparations to push forward bilateral relations. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has already signed the ambassador’s credentials,” Abul-Gheit told October magazine, published on Sunday. He added that a higher joint Egyptian-Iraqi committee, to meet on November 2-3, will tackle several issues, to be followed by Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki’s visit to Egypt at the invitation of his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Nazif. Abul-Gheit expressed hope that the joint committee meetings would give a “very positive impetus to relations”. On the Iraq neighbors’ interior ministers meetings, hosted recently at the Egyptian Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, he said that they would continue within a framework of cooperation, mainly to coordinate means to control borders. AmR (S) 1