Iraq asks Saudi Arabia to replace envoy

BAGHDAD

Iraq’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday demanded Saudi Arabia change its ambassador in Baghdad, Thamer al-Sabhan.

The move came a week after al-Sabhan accused Iran-affiliated Iraqi Shia militias of plotting to assassinate him.

“The Foreign Ministry has asked its Saudi counterpart to replace the Saudi ambassador in Baghdad,” ministry spokesman Ahmed Gamal said in a statement.

The spokesman, however, did not elaborate about the causes of the request for replacing the envoy.

Last week, Iraqi authorities said that Baghdad was not aware of any plot to assassinate the Saudi diplomat.

Spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry Bahran Ghasemi, for his part, said claims by the Saudi envoy were “not surprising”.

Al-Sabhan was named an ambassador to Iraq in April 2015 for the first time since Riyadh severed diplomatic relations with Baghdad in 1991 following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

*Reporting by Arif Yusuf; Writing by Mahmoud Barakat