CAIRO: Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Thursday that it cannot yet be verified who was behind the disappearance and murder of former Egyptian ambassador to Iraq Ihab Al-Sherif.

Aboul Gheit was talking to members of the press after receiving the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern who is on a four-day trip to the Middle East.

Aboul Gheit refused to directly comment on a recent Al-Ahram article which claimed that Iran was behind the abduction and murder of the Egyptian ambassador in July 2005.

“We don’t know what exactly happened to Al-Sharif, he said.

The ambassador’s body has never been found.

Aboul Gheit added “This is a human tragedy by all standards and we have conducted numerous investigations but we haven’t reached anything.

Egypt’s biggest-circulation daily Al-Ahram had claimed in a front page article published Sunday that former Al-Sherif was killed by Iranian intelligence in 2005.

The article cited “diplomatic sources who said that Iranian intelligence “stood behind the kidnapping and subsequent disappearance of Al-Sherif with the aim of preventing and forestalling Egyptian involvement in Iraq.