Dhaka, Mar 16: Bangladesh has shut its embassy in Iraq and its diplomats in Baghdad will shortly leave for Jordan due to the possibility of war, a foreign ministry source said today.
He said 10 staff members from the Bangladeshi mission,
including the ambassador, were likely to leave today for
Jordan's capital Amman after the embassy was closed
"temporarily."
Non-essential staff at the Bangladeshi embassy and most
of the diplomats' family members had already left, mostly for
Dhaka.
Bangladesh also has contingency plans to evacuate some of
its 1.7 million nationals who work in the gulf if the need
arises.
While most Bangladeshis in the Gulf are in Saudi Arabia,
about 1,50,000 are in Kuwait, which is hosting a nearly equal
number of US troops.
Diplomatic sources said 73 Bangladeshi workers are known
to be in Iraq.
Bangladesh, the world's third largest Muslim-majority
country, has called for a peaceful resolution to the Iraq
crisis under the aegis of the United Nations. It has seen
nearly daily protests against a potential US military campaign
in Iraq.
Bureau Report
