- (Reuters) -- The United States is planning a 3000 embassy
in Baghdad, making it the largest US diplomatic mission anywhere in the
world.
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- The Washington Post reported on Friday that the move
would signal a handing over of responsibility of dealing with Iraq from
the Pentagon to the State Department.
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- The mission will help coordinate efforts to hold elections
and usher in a democratic government in the country.
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- "The real challenge for the new embassy, so to speak,
or the new presence will be helping the Iraqi people get ready for their
full elections and full constitution the following year," Secretary
of State Colin Powell told The Post in an interview this week.
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- "That's going to be a major effort on our part."
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- One of the first steps would be resuming diplomatic relations
between Washington and Baghdad.
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- Although the United States is the occupying power in
Iraq, the two countries have still not resumed diplomatic relations, which
were severed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
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- The US embassy in Egypt has a larger presence with more
than 7,000 personnel but this includes many non-diplomats from other US
agencies, including, for example, two members of the US Library of Congress
who collect foreign books.
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- The Baghdad embassy will have the largest US diplomatic
staff anywhere in the world, The Post quoted State Department officials
as saying.
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- The United States is planning to build a new embassy,
it added, with construction expected to take three to five years.
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