Iraqi Ambassador to Egypt Have Not Asked for Political Asylum in Russia

The Russian embassy in Cairo has refuted the report of the Western mass media that the Iraqi ambassador to Egypt, Halil Mohsen, has allegedly asked for political asylum in Russia. Russian minister-counsellor in Cairo Andrei Zakharov said that the report "absolutely does not correspond to reality." In a RIA Novosti interview Zakharov underscored that "the Iraqi diplomat, who is also a permanent representative of that country in the League of Arab States, did not visit the Russian embassy and did not talk on this theme with our diplomats." The reports of the Western mass media that Yemen has agreed to receive the family of the Iraqi diplomat and that it considers the question of granting him asylum were refuted by press attache of the Yemeni embassy in Egypt Jamila Ali Rajaa. "I hear about it for the first time," she said.