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BERLIN, March 19: Germany has expelled four Iraqi diplomats for activities considered “incompatible with their diplomatic status”, the foreign ministry announced on Wednesday.
The ministry said the diplomats, who were not identified, had “been carrying out activities incompatible with their diplomatic status” and were asked on Tuesday to leave “at short notice”.
The phrase is diplomatic language for activities like monitoring members of the Iraqi opposition abroad or espionage.
Germany opposes military action in Iraq.
It was unclear whether any of the four had left Germany, but the DPA press agency reported that they had been given until midnight Wednesday (0100 GMT Thursday) to leave.
The German government said on March 7 that it was examining a request by the United States to expel an undisclosed number of Iraqi diplomats who Washington thought might be a danger to US personnel and interests.
More than 60 countries were approached by the United States. Australia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, the Philippines, Romania and Sweden have expelled Iraqi diplomats following requests from Washington to do so, while Belgium, Russia and Portugal have refused.
Austria asked Iraq last week to reduce the number of its diplomats in Vienna after the United States complained that the embassy did not respect guidelines laid down in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
On March 5, the United States expelled two Iraqi diplomats accredited to the United Nations for spying. State Department spokeswoman Tara Rigler said at the time that both had been engaged in “activities outside the scope of their official functions,” and that they were considered a risk to the United States.
WAR REJECTED: Germany on Wednesday rejected the imminent US-led invasion of Iraq and insisted that it was still possible to disarm the regime of President Saddam Hussein by peaceful means.
“Peaceful means have not been exhausted,” German Foreign Minister Joshka Fischer told an open meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York.
“For that reason, Germany emphatically rejects the impending war,” he said.
The meeting began with a statement by chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, presenting a work programme which sets out the key remaining disarmament tasks for Iraq.
Blix acknowledged that his programme “would seem to have only limited practical relevance in the current situation” since all the inspectors have followed orders to leave Iraq under the threat of imminent US-led invasion.
But Fischer noted that the work programme “provides clear and convincing guidelines on how to disarm Iraq peacefully within a short space of time.”
It was “possible to disarm Iraq peacefully by upholding these demands with tight deadlines,” he said, emphasising his words.—AFP
