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Defying U.N. Sanctions China, Egypt And Ukraine Send Planes To Iraq
BAGHDAD (AFP) - More cracks showed in the United Nation's embargo on flights to Iraq Friday with the arrival of three planes from China, Egypt and Ukraine.
China became the third permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, following Russia and France, to send a plane to Baghdad in defiance of the U.N.'s decade-long embargo on air travel to Iraq.
More than 80 flights have landed in Baghdad since August 17th when Saddam International Airport reopened despite the air ban that forms part of U.N. sanctions imposed on Iraq for its August 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The Air China plane carried a 69-member government delegation and a shipment of humanitarian aid, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported when the aircraft left Beijing.
The delegation was led by minister without portfolio Ismail Amat, who holds the rank of state councilor, and included ministry officials from foreign affairs, health and foreign trade and economic cooperation, along with members of the Chinese Red Cross.
Amat told IRNA after the delegation's arrival that the visit would "contribute to the bolstering of warm relations and cooperation between the two countries."
The delegation is to spend three days in Baghdad.
Opposed to the United States' and Great Britain's Iraq policy, China, Russia and France believe that U.N. sanctions do not include a ban on flights to Iraq, arguing humanitarian flights are permitted with notification to the U.N.
The EgyptAir plane carried a humanitarian delegation of 150 people led by parliament member Imad Said Al-Jalda. The group also included doctors and artists.
EgyptAir had announced Tuesday that the company would start weekly charter flights to Baghdad following the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which will be celebrated December 26th and December 27th.
Egypt has organized several humanitarian flights to Iraq in the past two months. Relations between Egypt and Iraq have recently improved. On November 7th, the two countries agreed to restore charges d'affaires to their respective capitals, one grade below ambassador following their severing of relations after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
The Ukrainian plane carried 15 parliament members and was the fifth Ukrainian flight to land in Baghdad since August. The flight was welcomed by Abdel Rahman al-Hamdani, an official from the national council for Arab and international relations.
Meanwhile, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said Thursday he planned to visit Iraq, and a Belarussian delegation flew into Iraq Wednesday.
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