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In Hanoi, Iraqi envoy Salah Elmukhtar rejected claims that the Saddam era had ended and pledged that the war against US and British forces would go on for "one month, one year, 10 years."
"Fighting is still going on in Baghdad," Elmukhtar told AFP. "The battle of the capital has not ended yet.
"Iraqi people are all against the foreign invasion" he said, insisting that scenes of jubilation at Saddam's fall among the Iraqi population were organized by "Iraqi mercenaries trained outside of Iraq by US forces."
"If we lose Baghdad, we will keep fighting in other cities," the Iraqi ambassador said. "It could last one month, one year, 10 years."
Iraqi diplomats contacted by AFP at other Iraqi missions in Asia insisted it was business as usual, but others seemed to have accepted that Saddam was done and said they were awaiting instructions.
In Beijing, an Iraqi diplomat said the Iraqi embassy in China had not had any contact with Baghdad for more than two weeks and was awaiting orders from a new government.
"We have had no contact with Baghdad for 15 days," commercial counsellor Hussain R. Sarhan said. "There is no government. We are waiting for the new change."
The only news that the embassy has from Iraq is what is being seen on television, he said, including reports on the possible death of Saddam.
"We don't know where he is, if he is killed or if he has fled, we know nothing," Sarhan said.
In Kuala Lumpur, Raad al-Mudars, a diplomat with the Iraqi embassy in Malaysia, said it was business as usual. "We are functioning as normal. We have not heard of anything otherwise," he said.
Asked whether the mission still pledged allegiance to Saddam's government, he said: "We are loyal to Iraq."
In Bangkok, Talal Waleed, the third secretary at the Iraqi embassy in Thailand, said the mission had "lost communications with Baghdad some time ago."
"The war is over and we hope that Iraqi people will live peacefully," said Waleed, one of just two Iraqi diplomats still attached to the Bangkok embassy.
Three junior diplomats were expelled from Thailand in March after being accused of posing national security threats to the kingdom.
Australia expelled all Iraqi diplomats last month and the phone at the Iraqi embassy in Canberra went unanswered on Thursday.
In Manila, the Iraqi embassy in the Philippines suspended operations Thursday but an embassy staffer insisted it would reopen the next day.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Blas Ople said his department was in contact with embassy officials but described it as "an awkward situation."
"They are in a sort of limbo in the sense that a question may be asked as to what government they represent," he said.
"When there is a new government in Baghdad, they are expected to appoint ambassadors, consuls. We are awaiting for a new legitimate government of Iraq," Ople added.
In New Delhi, a diplomat with the Iraqi embassy in India said they were waiting instructions.
"We have no official information. We will decide on our next move after we hear from our government in Baghdad," counsellor Adday O Al Sakab said.
In Jakarta, the phone was answered at the Iraqi embassy but the official on the line said she was "very busy." "We have nothing to tell," she added. "We have no contact at all with Baghdad."
In Islamabad, a spokesman for the Iraqi embassy in Pakistan said "the embassy is open and it is functioning." The Iraqi ambassador to Pakistan, Kathim A. Rawi, was not available for comment, however.
The Iraqi embassy in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka was closed Thursday but the Iraqi embassy in Japan was open and a secretary at the mission said all nine Iraqi staff had shown up for work.
SPACE.WIRE |