Just one month after restoring diplomatic relations with Iraq, Egypt's newly appointed ambassador to the country has been kidnapped in Baghdad by unknown gunmen in "modern cars, who tied him up and took him to an unknown destination", acording to an Egyptian news agency, Nile TV.

Egypt was the first Arab country to reinstate its diplomatic representation to Iraq after more than a ten-year absence. Egypt had severed diplomatic ties with Iraq in 1991 after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Ihab al-Sherif took up residence in Baghdad on June 1st but had not yet formally presented his credentials to the Iraqi President.

Analysts say that the kidnappers motives are clear - their goal is to stop Arab and Muslim neighbours from following the Egyptian example of formally recognizing a new Iraq.