CAIRO: Egypt, whose head of mission in Baghdad was killed in 2005, is to open two consulates in Iraq, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit announced on Tuesday.
He told reporters that President Hosni Mubarak has approved the opening of an Egyptian consulate in the northern city of Arbil and another in the port city of Basra, southern Iraq.
Egypt’s leader met earlier on Tuesday with Massud Barzani, president of the Kurdish regional government for northern Iraq that is based in Arbil, and Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdel Mehdi.
An Egyptian ambassador has been posted in Iraq since November 2009 as head of mission, after a four-year break since the kidnapping and murder of charge d’affaires Ihab Al-Sharif in an attack claimed by Al-Qaeda.
