great work again, eriposte.

May I just clarify something - the link to the cached page of the Egypt State Information Service (www.sis.gov.eg) where in 2004 one could find the record of the meeting between the Egyptian FM and the Iraqi FM does not work anymore - apparently the egypt state information service has removed this from their site.

One other link you could add instead is the news from July 8, 1999, of
Algeria inviting the Iraqi FM:

(http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/990708/1999070853.html)

"Iraqi foreign minister expected to attend Algerian summit
Iraq-Algeria-Africa, Politics, 7/8/1999

African official sources said that Algeria directed an invitation to Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahaf to attend the meetings of the African foreign ministers tomorrow.

The African sources stated that this initiative gives Iraq the chance to talk to Africa, to present its point of view and to explain its case through side meetings with the African foreign ministers.

The sources said, "This invitation is considered a step on the Arab reconciliation path urged on by the Jordanian monarch, King Abdullah, who visited Algeria in last May.""

Cheers

dr z

Another small note.

Eriposte says:
"Also, did Miyaki consider the visit of Wissam Al-Zahawie that of a delegation or just that of an envoy (which is how it seems to have been reported). If the latter is true, then Miyaki's statement to the BBC could be true."

I don't think Mayaki's statement needs conditions to be true. In Feb 1999 Al-Zahawie met the President of Niger (Ibrahim Bare was president at the time), not the Nigerien PM Mayaki.

So even without knowing for certain the question asked by BBC, it appears unconditionally true that Mayaki did not meet in Niger a delegation or envoy from Iraq in 1999 (or any other time while he was FM or PM as the lede of the BBC article claims). Mayaki's tenure in government spanned 1996-1997 as FM, and 27 Nov 1997 - 03 Jan 2000 as PM (source).

Dr Z,

Thanks for the updates...

The question I would have with respect to your second comment is whether we can be sure Mayaki never met Al-Zahawie in Feb 1999.

Eriposte wrote:
The question I would have with respect to your second comment is whether we can be sure Mayaki never met Al-Zahawie in Feb 1999.

Well you are right of course; it would be nice to ask Mayaki all the right questions. I guess my point was that (i) there is no evidence or reports or claims anywhere that Mayaki met Al-Zahawie, and (ii) typically a president and the PM would not have identical schedules or be present at the same routine diplomatic functions like meeting foreign diplomats, so there is no basis for questioning Mayaki's words, really. So I would have to assume by default that Mayaki is telling the truth in the context of the specific question he was asked.

In general, however, the BBC was asking the wrong questions, having been misled or misinformed about the specifics of the meeting that actually happened in July 1999 in Algiers, as you have laid out in your expose.

Details, details...

Again, thanks for your wonderful work on this, and for elevating my earlier efforts from obscurity :-)

Dr Z,

Thank you for your work as well. It helped add to my body of knowledge.