Iraqi Delegate Has Nosebleed, Again Puts Off U.N. Speech
Iraqi U.N. envoy Abdul Amir Anbari suffered a severe nosebleed Thursday shortly before he was to have addressed the General Assembly. His speech, already twice postponed, was rescheduled for late today.
The 55-year-old diplomat was treated for more than an hour in the U.N. medical clinic before being released.
Anbari, who has had an exhausting workload since Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait two month ago, was taken ill while taping an Arabic-language radio broadcast in a U.N. studio, according to witnesses.
Neither the U.N. clinic staff nor the U.N. spokesman’s office would give details of the ambassador’s condition.
Soon after Anbari left the building, a U.N. spokeswoman said that the Harvard-educated international lawyer is to be the last speaker at this afternoon’s session of the General Assembly.
He will be standing in for Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz, who last month canceled plans to come to the United Nations after the United States refused permission for him to fly to New York aboard a special Iraqi plane, saying that he could take a commercial flight.
Anbari was originally to have spoken Monday, but the address was postponed, first until Wednesday and then until Thursday.
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