US refuses to recognise ‘Mayor of Baghdad’

THE United States does not recognise a former exile who says he is governor of Baghdad and Washington thinks his deputy cannot represent Iraq at an emergency OPEC meeting this week, a senior US official said yesterday.

Barbara Bodine, co-ordinator for central Iraq in the US civil administration overseeing reconstruction, said Washington did not recognise Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi, who declared last week he was chief of an interim council to run the capital.

“We don’t really know much about him except that he’s declared himself mayor,” said Bodine, a former US ambassador to Yemen. “We don’t recognise him. There hasn’t been a process of selection. Once there’s a process, then whomever.”