BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi Airways will soon take back six planes the Iraqi regime sent to Jordan to protect them on the eve of the 1991 Gulf War, a newspaper reported Thursday.
"The six planes taken to Jordan in 1991 will soon join Iraq's air fleet," an unidentified official at the transport ministry told Al-Zawra newspaper.
According to the official, the planes will be used to transport Iraqi Muslims to Saudi Arabia during the pilgrimage season, which starts early next year.
Iraqi Airways, which was grounded in 1990, dispatched a fleet of some 30 planes to Iran, Jordan, Libya and Tunisia for safety.
The national carrier began on November 5th domestic flights through the U.S. and British controlled "no-fly zones" to the southern port of Basra and the northern oil city of Mosul.
Since Baghdad's Saddam International Airport reopened in mid-August, Russian aircraft led the way in a campaign to end the air embargo. Solidarity flights mainly from Arab countries have since become an almost daily affair.
The United States and Britain insist that authorization from the U.N. sanctions committee is needed to fly to Baghdad. But France, like China and Russia say non-commercial flights do not need to be authorized.
