Hamdoon ( 374K/13 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)
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UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The ambassador with perhaps the toughest job at the United Nations is going home.

Iraq's ambassador to the world body, Nizar Hamdoon, has spent six years defending Baghdad's interests. He said he's disappointed he could not do more to open up a dialogue with his country's former friends, the United States.

Hamdoon was recalled by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein but said his recall comes at a good time.

"Obviously it always feels good to be back home, and I think it's the right time for me on a personal basis," he said.

And though his government has been on the business end of some of the United Nations' more stringent measures, Hamdoon has earned the respect of many of his U.N. colleagues.

"Its ghastly business, having to represent a government who's a pariah," said Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Britain's U.N. ambassador. "But I think he did, in most circumstances, a professional job."

Hamdoon with Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton

Hamdoon tried to take Iraq's case to the American people through personal appearances. But U.S. sanctions blocked him from traveling outside New York, so Hamdoon frequently went on television.

"Mr. Hamdoon is a skilled diplomat. He has acted his part as he must, but he can't oppose his boss and live to see the morning," said Ruth Wedgewood, an analyst for the Council on Foreign Relations.

Added Jim Hoagland, a columnist for The Washington Post, "He gave you a sense in dealing with you as a journalist, establishing a certain distance from the regime in Baghdad without ever saying a word that could be used against him in Baghdad to show he's disloyal."

Even a U.N. rival -- Charles Duelfer, deputy director of the U.N. Special Commission on Iraq, charged with disarming the country after the 1991 Persian Gulf war -- found him disarming.

"He is a man who can, I think, present the Iraqi case as well as anyone, in terms that are as appealing (and) seductive as possible to the outside world," Duelfer said.

Hamdoon returns to a nation that only last month was bombed by British and U.S. pilots acting under U.N. auspices. But he says he has no fear in going back home.

"When I go back to Iraq, I will not be able to do the things that I used to do in the '60s, '70s and '80s. This is exactly what Nizar Hamdoon is, just like any of those Iraqis who really love to live in peace."