Iraqi diplomats reportedly ask to stay in U.S.

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Two high-ranking Iraqi diplomats at the United Nations have requested asylum in the United States, officials told CNN on Tuesday.

A State Department official said Mohammed al-Humaimidi, Iraq's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, walked into a New York City police precinct Friday and asked asylum for himself and his family. The police referred the case to the FBI.

A U.N. diplomat told CNN that another Iraqi diplomat, Fela Hesan al-Rubaie -- reportedly the No. 4 official in Iraq's U.N. mission -- had requested asylum. Other diplomats said al-Rubaie had asked the Iraqi government in recent days for permission to remain in the United States on his allotted pension.

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Al-Rubaie was slated to return to Baghdad this month. The diplomats said Iraq had not yet responded to al-Rubaie's request and that he had not been heard from since last week.

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The Associated Press reported that calls to al-Rubaie's home number in New York went unanswered, and that the doorman at the luxury Manhattan apartment building where he lived told reporters the family moved out two weeks ago.

Officials from the Immigration and Naturalization Service would neither confirm nor deny that any Iraqis had asked for asylum. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher refused comment, saying the department does not "discuss alleged asylum requests."

In Baghdad, Iraq's Foreign Ministry would neither confirm nor deny the reports.

Iraqi State Minister of Foreign Affairs Naji Sabri did confirm that al-Rubaie had been in New York.

"I know someone by that name ... but as with all diplomats his stay is for a period and then he can be transferred to a different position," he said.

The minister said he was speaking in general and that he did not "know any details about [al-Rubaie's] term of office."

Other diplomats in Baghdad said they had not heard of the reported defections.

Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed al-Douri, said three staff members from the mission finished their terms of duty at the end of June, but he would not confirm whether any had defected. Al-Douri's response to reporters' questions as he left his residence Tuesday afternoon was, "No comment."

An official at the Iraqi mission in New York who asked not to be identified said the three staffers were not yet in Baghdad. The official said staff members are usually allowed a three-week grace period when being sent home, and in the interim they could travel anywhere.

The Iraqi delegation has had no contact with either the New York police or the State Department about any possible defections, the official said. "Anyway, we would be the last to know," he said.

CNN Producers Ronni Berke, Adam Reiss and James Martone contributed to this report.