A Royal Jordanian airline flight arrived in Baghdad Thursday from Amman, carrying 150 doctors, pharmacists and engineers on the fourth humanitarian flight to Iraq in two weeks, an official said.
The delegation is carrying with it medical supplies and books to be delivered to counterparts in Iraq, the source said.
Receiving the delegation, an Iraqi official called for war a closing of Israeli embassies in the Arab world and a break in relations with Washington.
"The Arab masses and different political bodies in the nation are called upon to ... strike at American and Zionist interests," said Abdel Ghani Abdel Ghafur, a member of the ruling Baath party.
"American-British aggression against Iraq and the embargo imposed on it shall not stop this country, under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, from assuming its patriotic role to liberate Palestine, which has been usurped by the Zionists," he said, cited by the official Iraqi News Agency.
Since a maiden voyage on November 30, Jordan, the first Arab country to organize such humanitarian trips, has scheduled twice weekly flights to Iraq, every Monday and Thursday.
The flights follow UN procedure and receive UN approval 48 hours before departure, Saleh Rsheidat, Jordan's deputy premier and transportation minister, told AFP.
He described the flights as "not conducting any commercial transactions" and having a "purely humanitarian character" -- BAGHDAD (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
