Arab world needs to send ambassadors to Iraq: Zebari

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's foreign minister called on Thursday for Arab states to send ambassadors to his country, saying it was "embarrassing" most had failed to do so almost five years after Saddam Hussein was toppled from power.

Hoshiyar Zebari said he believed the decision not to send top-level diplomats was politically motivated, with Arab governments reluctant to be seen supporting an administration elected in the wake of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

"I think it's a political decision not to extend legitimacy to the new regime, that this has been created ... by foreign invasion and so on," he told Reuters in an interview.

"It's long overdue for the Arab countries to establish their full diplomatic representation here with an Arab country. Of course we expected them to do more."

The United States has urged Sunni Arab states to open embassies in Baghdad as a sign of support for the Shi'ite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Asked if the Arab world's reluctance had anything to do with the fact this was a Shi'ite-led government, Zebari said: "They may have a number of reasons, but really I think it's political."

In December, Zebari said both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had said they would send a mission to explore opening embassies in Iraq for the first time since the invasion.

Despite similar pledges from other countries, he expressed disappointment there was still virtually no representation from Arab countries at the senior diplomatic level.

"There is a Jordanian ambassador but he spends most of his time in Amman rather than Baghdad," Zebari said.

"We have got some commitment from a number of key countries, for Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates that they will reopen their missions."

Many Arab diplomats have stayed away from Baghdad after a suicide car bomber attacked the Jordanian embassy in August 2003, killing 17 people.

A truck bomb also exploded outside the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad that month, killing 22 people, including mission chief Sergio Vieira de Mello.

Militants have killed several other diplomats, including an Egyptian who had been sent to head Cairo's mission in 2005.

"EMBARRASSING"

Zebari said he told Arab ambassadors in Moscow during a visit to Russia this week it was "embarrassing" for them that Russia, an opponent of the 2003 invasion but now a key investor in Iraq, had a strong presence and they had almost none.

"I told (them) that really it is embarrassing to see for me or for you. Here we have the Russians who opposed the war, their diplomats were killed in Baghdad but they have a strong presence in Iraq," Zebari said.

However, Zebari said that while security might be an issue, the situation in the capital had improved vastly in the last six months since the implementation of a year-long U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown in the capital.

Diplomats from other nations were able to rely on private security firms, he added.

"I think it's political, it's not technical, it's not fears of security," Zebari said.

"Part of my ministry's plan for 2008 is really to encourage, to start establishing some Arab diplomatic representation here."

Zebari said he had noticed a growing "realization" across the Arab world that the Iraqi government had come to power through elections, based on a constitution, and that they would have to do business with it.

"It's not going to disappear," he said of Iraq. (Writing by Michael Holden, Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)