U.N. Sanctions Committee Suspends EgyptAir Flight To Baghdad
CAIRO (News Agencies) - The U.N. sanctions committee acted on a U.S. request to suspend a humanitarian flight by EgyptAir to Baghdad that had been scheduled for Tuesday, an Egyptian foreign ministry official said.
The official, who asked not to be identified, said Wednesday that the flight by the national airline was to have transported medical supplies, humanitarian aid and delegates from non-government organizations to Baghdad.
The flight was suspended "after the American representative to the sanctions committee objected to the presence of two heart-monitoring machines among the equipment the plane was to carry," the official said.
"This U.S. objection is unjustified because this kind of medical equipment is not among equipment banned by the sanctions committee," he added.
"The British delegate to the sanctions committee asked Lloyds not to insure humanitarian flights which fly to Baghdad without explicit sanctions committee approval, which led to the suspension of several humanitarian flights to Baghdad recently," he said.
International support for the 10-year United Nations economic sanctions has been eroding, and the U.N. Security Council has become divided over how to interpret the sanctions when it applies to flights to and from Baghdad.
France, Russia and China - unlike the United States and Britain - insist that U.N. resolutions on Iraq do not call for an air embargo and that non-commercial flights be allowed on simple notification of the committee.
The sanctions were imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in August 1990.
