Iraq, Thailand exchange ambassadors

Officials concerned said that Iraq and Thailand agreed on Thursday on exchanging ambassadors for the first time since the suspension of relations between them more than one decade because of the Gulf war.

The Thai foreign minister said that the Iraqi minister of trade Muhammad Mahdi Saleh currently visiting Bancock has expressed his intention to send an ambassador to Thailand during the current years ( 2002).

The Thai foreign minister told journalists following a meeting with saleh:" I am happy that the Iraqi government has expressed its intention to return back its ambassador to Thailand."

He said that Thailand will respond to that by sending its ambassador to Baghdad by the end of the current year.

The Iraqi minister of trade arrived in Bancock last Monday in a mission to increase trade between Iraq and Thailand which reached USD 127.9 million in 2001 under the share- system imposed by the UN under the " oil for food program." He hoped that UN sanction imposed on Iraq will be lifted very soon.

However, among issues suspended between Baghdad and Bancock is USD 80 million Iraq has to pay for the Thai rice exporters who sold this rice to Iraq before its invasion of Kuwait in 1990. The Iraqi trade minister left Bancock on Friday.