AMMAN, Feb 8 (IslamOnline) - The Jordanian government on Thursday banned a Jordanian plane carrying over 163 passengers, in a gesture of solidarity with Iraqi people, from taking off for Iraq.
Deputy Prime Minister Saleh Irsheidat said the plane was denied permission to leave from Marka Airport because the United Nations has rejected to grant the trip a go-ahead.
Sources said that passengers included a delegation popular and noteworthy Jordanians, including a lawmaker from the southern governorate of Kerak.
The plane was banned from leaving Jordan as passengers were forced to head back to their residences in Jordan. But prior to departing the airport, they staged a sit-in inside the building before dispersing peacefully.
The delegation's trip was intended to follow similar trips to Iraq made by professional unions and political parties in the recent past, who had chartered planes in defiance of the U.N. embargo.
According to U.N. regulations, flights leaving for Iraq are not allowed to fly without permission from the U.N. Sanctions Committee, the U.N. body that oversees the 11-year-old sanctions imposed against Iraq since its 1990-91 invasion of Kuwait.
Last September, a Jordanian plane, which included among its passengers Prime Minister Ali Abul Ragheb, left for Iraq to break the "no fly zone" imposed by the U.N. - and supported by the U.S. and U.K. - over Iraqi airspace.
