USA calls to expel iraqi diplomats. Russia says no

The Iraqi Embassy to Russia does not know just whom of its officers the USA has asked the host country to expel, Ambassador Abbas Khalaf Kunfud said tonight.

Similar requests from Washington, D.C., have come to another sixty countries, and only two - Sweden and Romania - intend to comply, added the diplomat. As he sees it, America seeks to gain on whipping up tensions round his country.

The ambassador enthusiastically approves Russia's stance on Iraq, as brought forward in a Foreign Ministry statement. "The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs found the US request unacceptable. That testifies to Moscow's independent and principled stance on the Iraqi issue," he said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs really received a request from the US Department of State to expel several Iraqi diplomats, following similar requests to all countries in which Iraq has legations. Moscow found it unacceptable and will certainly not expel the diplomats, says the ministerial press and information department.