CAIRO, Egypt (AP) – Nizar Hamdoun, Iraq’s former U.S. and U.N. ambassador and a key figure in restoring Iraqi-U.S. relations in the 1980s, has died in New York following a long battle with leukemia, an Arab newspaper reported Sunday. He was 58.

Hamdoun died Friday at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, according to the Al-Hayat Arabic daily, which is published in London.

Sloan-Kettering officials could not confirm that Hamdoun had died.

Hamdoun, who studied in the United States and graduated as an architect, headed the Arab Student Union in America during the 1960s before returning to Iraq and becoming deeply involved in his own country’s politics.

Hamdoun headed the Iraqi Baath Party’s branch in neighboring Syria early in his political career. At the time, Syrian officials accused him of orchestrating acts of sabotage inside their country against the regime of the late President Hafez Assad.

In 1984, Hamdoun became Iraq’s first ambassador to the United States since Baghdad severed ties with Washington almost two decades earlier. Relations between both countries had fallen apart after Baghdad accused Washington of supporting Israel in the 1967 Mideast War.

Hamdoun built closer ties with senior U.S. officials during his four years as U.S. ambassador. He also provided intelligence to Washington during the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran War.

In 1986, Hamdoun led efforts to establish the “Iraqi Forum,” a lobby group consisting of businessmen, academics and oil executives who worked to promote Iraq’s image within American political circles.

A Sunni Muslim from a large family in the northern city of Mosul, Hamdoun returned to Baghdad in 1988 and was appointed deputy foreign minister.

He was diagnosed as having leukemia before the 1991 U.S.-led Gulf War that drove occupying Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. In 1992, Hamdoun returned again to the United States, this time as Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York, a position he held until 1999.

After his U.N. stint, he returned to Baghdad to become the undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry.

, but his worsening health forced him to regularly return to the United States for treatment.

In 2001, as part of Iraqi foreign ministry changes, Hamdoun was among a group of Iraqi diplomats removed from their diplomatic roles and made a local Baath Party official.

Hamdoun has been in New York since February undergoing intensive treatment, according to the newspaper.

Hamdoun’s body will be flown to Jordan, then to Iraq for burial, Al-Hayat said. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.

AP-ES-07-06-03 1842EDT

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