I was just wondering about this today. What exactly happened to the Iraqi embassies up to and after Baghdad’s fall? Did the Iraqis abandon them? Did the US occupy them? Is there some official process for transitioning them to the provisional government? Inquiring minds want to know. Thanks.
The government of Iraq is out to an extended lunch but the state of Iraq continues to exist. The embassy buildings are the property of the latter, not the former.
tschild, that may be true, but that doesn’t answer any of my questions.
Mostly the embassy staff is just sitting around, waiting for some sort of government to give them orders. The only difficulty is that they aren’t getting paid. I hope the pantries are pretty well stocked. As far as I know, no Iraqi embassies have been occupied by any troops or law enforcement agents of any country.
The US is having many of the embassies closed, or restaffed.
Sometimes it goes smoothly:
Iraq closes embassy in Philippines
Sometimes not:
Standoff at Iraq’s Beijing Embassy