KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs today clarified that contrary to earlier media reports, Datuk Mohd Arshad M Hussain has not been sacked from his post as governor and resident representative of Malaysia to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

However, the ministry said Mohd Arshad would not get an extension on his contract scheduled to expire on March 12.

The Malaysian envoy caused a stir last year when he voted against an IAEA resolution to rebuke Iran for its secret nuclear enrichment plan.

Malaysia was only one of three countries, besides Venezuela and Cuba, that voted against the Nov 27 IAEA resolution. Of the 35-member IAEA board of governors, of which Arshad was the chairman, 25 countries voted in favour of the resolution, six countries abstained, three voted against and one was absent.

It was reported that the Malaysian foreign ministry had recalled Mohd Arshad as his voting was "not in accordance with government procedures".

Meanwhile, in today's statement, Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman said it was a normal process for the government to appoint new ambassadors to replace ambassadors whose term of contract had expired in order to make way for new talents.

Succeeding Mohd Arshad, the government has appointed Datuk Muhammad Shahrul Ikram Yaakob as Malaysia's new governor to the board of governors of the IAEA.

The ministry said the appointment letter of Muhammad Shahrul had been conveyed to Yukiya Amano, director-general of IAEA by Anifah on Feb 4, 2010.

Muhammad Shahrul is presently Malaysia's Ambassador in Qatar.

He had served as the alternate resident representative of Malaysia to the IAEA from 2002 to 2005 and as the undersecretary of multilateral political affairs at the ministry of foreign affairs from 2005 to 2007 in charge of, among others, IAEA affairs.