US embassy cable - 03SANAA1546

S E C R E T SANAA 001546 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/30/2013 
TAGS: PREL, ASEC, IZ, AJ, YM 
SUBJECT: FORMER IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO AZERBAIJAN REQUESTS 
ASYLUM 
 
REF: A. SANAA 1414 
     B. STATE 163627 
     C. SANAA 1351 
     D. SANAA 1260 
     E. SANAA 1259 
     F. SANAA 1139 
     G. SANAA 898 
     H. STATE 102827 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Edmund J. Hull, for Reasons 1.5 (b,c,d) 
 
1.  (S/NF)  On 6/21 Abdul Hakim al-Iryani, Advisor to Foreign 
Minister Qirbi, asked for USG assistance in vetting the 
asylum request of former Iraqi Ambassador to Azerbaijan, 
Ghalib Abdu Husayn al-Tamimi, his wife, and their six 
children.  PolOff delivered USG response provided by ORCA 
(para 2) on June 25.  Iryani was pleased by the timeliness of 
the reply, but felt the response lacked the decisiveness ROYG 
requires.  He noted that this request is currently being 
handled by the Yemeni Ambassador to Turkey.  In response, 
PolOff re-affirmed the firm USG position that al-Tamimi 
should not be granted asylum. 
 
2.  (S/NF rel Yemen)  Begin text: 
 
Ghalib Abdu Husayn al-Tamimi has served as Iraqi Ambassador 
to Azerbaijan in Baku since approximately 1998.  We also have 
information that subject may also be an Iraqi Intelligence 
Service Officer who worked as a torturer in the General 
Security Directorate.  This information, however, has not 
been confirmed.  Subject attended university in Moscow and 
subsequently worked in Russia for several years as First 
Secretary in Iraq's Moscow embassy from 1989-1993.  He was 
 
SIPDIS 
part of an Iraqi commercial delegation that arrived in Moscow 
to confer with a Russian team of negotiators in October 1994 
and also worked in the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
Third Political Department.  He is in his late 40s or early 
50s, married, and has six children.  The 2002 Azerbaijani 
Diplomatic List showed Tamimi's wife as Afrah Tamimi.  He is 
Shi'a and speaks Russian fluently. 
 
End text. 
 
HULL