Iraqs UN envoy moves to DC as ambassador

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Iraq’s U.N. ambassador, Samir
Sumaidaie, said on Wednesday he was moving to Washington
shortly as Baghdad’s first ambassador to the United States in
15 years.

Sumaidaie presented his credentials to U.S. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday and said in an e-mail he
expected to meet President George W. Bush “in the coming days.”

Sumaidaie became Iraq’s first post-war ambassador to the
United Nations in July 2004. He had been an interior minister
in the post-Saddam Hussein government after returning to
Baghdad from exile in London where he was involved in
opposition groups.

In June 2005, Sumaidaie accused U.S. Marines of shooting to
death his 21-year-old unarmed cousin, an engineering student,
during a raid in his home in western Iraq.

The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Iraq
after Baghdad’s troops invaded Kuwait in mid-1990 and restored
them in June 2004.