Jordan will allow Egypt to use its airspace for a weekly flight to Iraq, Civil Aviation chief Jihad Rsheid told the official Petra news agency on Tuesday. Egypt wants to operate a Tuesday flight from Cairo to Baghdad passing through Jordanian airspace, and Amman agreed to that request, Rsheid said.
But he stressed that final approval will rest with the UN sanctions committee, adding that the Egyptian authorities had already contacted them and were waiting for a favorable response. The flight will be the latest sign of improved ties between Cairo and Baghdad after the resumption of diplomatic relations in November and which had been cut off since the 1991 Gulf war.
Jordan spearheaded the first Arab flight to Baghdad in September as part of humanitarian efforts to lift a decade of UN sanctions on Iraq and now runs two flights to the Iraqi capital under UN approval. — (AFP, Amman)
© Agence France Presse 2000
