Nizar Hamdoun, 58; Former Ambassador of Iraq to U.S., U.N.

Nizar Hamdoun, 58, Iraq’s former ambassador to the United Nations and the United States who played a central role in reopening Iraq-U.S. relations after a 16-year break that ended in 1983, died Friday at New York’s Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he had sought treatment for leukemia. His death was reported by Al-Hayat Arabic, a London-based newspaper.

Hamdoun, who was born in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, was trained as an architect before becoming deeply involved in the political affairs of his country in the 1960s. His early positions included heading the Iraqi Baath Party in Syria.

He became Iraq’s ambassador to the United States in 1984, filling a void created almost two decades earlier when Washington severed ties with his country. He provided intelligence to the U.S. during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

In 1986, he helped form the Iraqi Forum, a lobbying group of academics, oil executives and other businessmen who promoted Iraq in American political circles.

He returned to Iraq in 1988 and served as deputy foreign minister. From 1992 to 1999, he was ambassador to the United Nations. He then became undersecretary of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, but in 2001 was relieved of diplomatic duties and made a local Baath Party official. He regularly returned to New York for treatment of his leukemia.