Sources in Damascus said the diplomats and their dependents arrived in Damascus by land from Amman and were expected to stay in the Syrian capital until they receive orders from Baghdad on whether they should return to Iraq or not. Those expelled were the commercial attache, the cultural attache and three consular section officials.

Prime Minister Ali Abu Al-Ragheb told reporters the Iraqi diplomats had violated a bilateral security agreement.

“They violated the security agreement. We should not give the expulsions a bigger dimension. It is strictly a Jordanian-Iraqi issue,” Abu Al-Ragheb said. He did not elaborate.

Jordan was one of 60 countries asked by Washington recently to expel Iraqi diplomats engaged in what the United States called espionage.

But Abu Al-Ragheb denied the expulsions were to win favor with Washington or met a US request. “They have not come as a dictate from anyone,” he said.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri yesterday regretted Jordan’s expulsion of the diplomats and accused Amman of bowing to US pressure.

“This is something unfortunate. The Jordanian government has bowed before American orders,” he told reporters in Cairo, where he will attend an Arab League meeting today. Iraq, he said, “has stood on the side of Jordan for more than 30 years and kept the Jordanian economy alive.”