Ignacio Rupérez Rubio (17 October 1943 – 25 December 2015) was a Spanish diplomat, journalist, and writer. Rupérez was appointed Ambassador to Iraq on 3 June 2005, becoming the first Ambassador to Iraq since 1991, when the Spanish embassy in Baghdad was closed during the Gulf War. ^{[1] [2]} He served as Ambassador to Iraq from 2005 until 2008. ^[1] He was later appointed Ambassador to Honduras. ^[1] Rupérez was the brother of Javier Rupérez, a diplomat and politician. ^[1]

Rupérez began his career as a newspaper journalist, including ABC and El País. ^[3] He became a Spanish diplomat in 1980. ^[1] His first diplomatic posting was to Cairo, Egypt. ^[3] He transferred to Tel Aviv, Israel, which had recently established diplomatic relations with Spain, in 1986. ^[3] Rupérez was next posted to the Embassy of Spain in Havana, Cuba, from 1989 to 1992. ^[3] He was then sent to Kyiv, Ukraine, as a deputy in 1992. ^[3]

Ignacio Rupérez was posted to the Spanish diplomatic mission in Iraq by the government of José María Aznar in 1997. ^[3] Spain had closed its embassy and recalled its ambassador in 1991 during the first Gulf War. ^[1] Since there was no ambassador, Ruperez was posted as chargé d'affaires until 2000. ^[3]

He became the Vice President of the Comité Hispano-Americano in 2003. ^{[1] [2]}

On 3 June 2005 Ignacio Rupérez was appointed Ambassador to Iraq, becoming the first Spanish ambassador since 1991. ^[1] He served as Ambassador from 2005 to 2008. In a 2008 interview with El País, Rupérez called the situation in Iraq and the Iraq War "more complicated than Vietnam." ^[4] He later published his book, "Collateral Damage," in which he criticized the 2003 invasion of Iraq. ^[3]

Rupérez was next appointed Ambassador to Honduras in 2009. However, then President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a coup d'état during the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis shortly before Rupérez was scheduled to arrive in the country. ^[3] The government of Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero criticized Zelaya's ouster. As a result, Rupérez was denied entry into Honduras by the new Honduran government. ^{[3] [5]} Instead, Rupérez spent the first fourteen months of his Ambassadorship to Honduras stationed at the Spanish Embassy in neighboring El Salvador. ^[3] He was finally allowed into Honduras when relations between the two countries improved. ^[3]

Most recently, Rupérez has served as Ambassador-at-large for Muslim Communities and Organizations Abroad. ^[3]

Ignacio Rupérez died at a hospital in Madrid on 25 December 2015 at the age of 72, following a long illness. ^[2]

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