Iraqi Ambassador to U.S. Goes Home Today; Deputy to Stay

Iraq is withdrawing its ambassador to the United States, Mohammed Mashat, leaving only a single, lower-ranking diplomat at its mission in Washington as the prospects for war intensify, the State Department said Monday.

Mashat was scheduled to leave Washington for Baghdad sometime today, only hours before the midnight EST (9 p.m. PST) deadline for Iraq to pull its forces out of Kuwait or face a possible military offensive by U.S.-led armies.

Mashat, who has served as Iraq’s envoy since October, 1989, had been expected to stay in Washington despite the strain in U.S.-Iraqi ties. Diplomatic relations between the two countries have not been severed, and the reason for Baghdad’s decision to withdraw its ambassador could not be determined immediately.

With the possibility of Baghdad coming under attack, Washington on Saturday evacuated its remaining personnel from the U.S. Embassy in the Iraqi capital.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III does not plan to meet with Mashat before he leaves, a State Department official said.

Mashat’s deputy, Khalid Shewayish, will be placed in charge of the embassy, the department said. In addition, three Iraqi technicians and a dozen locally hired U.S. citizens will remain at the yellow-brick mansion that houses Iraq’s mission just off Embassy Row on Washington’s Massachusetts Avenue.

On Saturday, the State Department ordered Mashat to reduce the number of Iraqis at the embassy to four. It said the move was designed to “reduce Iraq’s capability to orchestrate terrorism in the event of gulf hostilities.”

Those Iraqis exceeding the ceiling were given until midnight tonight to leave the country. The diplomatic staff at the Iraqi Embassy was believed to number about 25 before the reduction.

Besides Shewayish, the other remaining Iraqis are an accountant, a clerk and an embassy guard, according to a U.S. official who requested anonymity.