Yemeni Plane in Iraq to Show Solidarity [Archives:2000/40/Local News]

BAGHDAD- A Yemeni plane, in defiance of U.N. sanctions, touched down at the Saddam International Airport here Friday afternoon to show solidarity with the sanctions-hit
country. This was the second plane from Arab countries to arrive in Baghdad since Iraq reopened the airport on August 17, and it was also the first flight from Yemen to Iraq in the past 10 years.
Upon arrival, Yemeni Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdul Qader Ba Jammal, who led the delegation, told reporters the visit is aimed at showing not only solidarity with the Iraqi people, but also trying to build a new future for the Arab countries. He reiterated Yemens call for lifting the decade-old United Nations sanctions imposed after Iraqs 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, who welcomed the Yemeni delegation at the airport, praised the Yemeni move and slammed the illegal air ban imposed on Iraq by the United States and Britain.
Some 70 people, including Yemeni Information Minister Abdul Rahman al-Akwa, parliamentarians and journalists were aboard the Boeing 727-200 plane.
The Yemeni plane came after a Jordanian plane landed in Baghdad on Thursday, being the first plane from an Arab country in more than a decade.
Russia and France were the first to break what the U.S. and
Britain insist air ban on Iraq by sending planes to Baghdad after notifying, instead of getting permission from the United Nations Sanctions Committee.
It has been reported that Russia and France would send more planes to Iraq, and India, Iceland, Syria and Lebanon are considering flying planes to Baghdad to further crack the air ban.
The U.S. and Britain maintain that all flights to or from Iraq
must get permission from the United Nations Sanctions Committee, but Russia and France do not think the authorization is necessary as they claim that the U.N. sanctions on Iraq do not cover air embargo.
Iraq rejects that the sanctions include an air embargo, saying that no U.N. resolution forbids humanitarian or civil flights to or from Iraq. (Xinhua)

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