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.