Libya and Iraq intend to start regular flights between Tripoli and Baghdad, a Libyan official said after a Libyan aircraft landed in Baghdad in defiance of a UN embargo. "The arrival in Iraq of a Libyan plane is the prelude to the setting up of a regular link between Baghdad and Tripoli, without waiting for anyone's green light," said Abdul Hamid Zintani referring to the UN sanctions committee.
Zintani, who is in charge of the Libyan social solidarity fund, told Iraqi state television Wednesday, August 22: "We are in a single (Arab) house and when we move around the rooms in this house we generally do not get anybody's authorization."
Zintani arrived Tuesday on a Libyan plane carrying an 80-member delegation and humanitarian aid. An Iraqi official had said talks would be held on setting up a regular weekly flight between Tripoli and Baghdad.
Dozens of aircraft, mainly from Arab countries, have touched down in Baghdad in a bid to break the embargo imposed on Iraq by the United Nations since the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. ― (AFP, Baghdad)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
