Jordan said Thursday that the state-run Royal Jordanian airline would not launch commercial flights to Iraq without UN permission, said reports.
Al Jazeera satellite TV quoted Minister of Information Taleb Rifai as confirming the decision, contradicting a statement by Foreign Minister Abdul-Ilah Al Khatib who said during his Thursday visit to the Palestinian lands that the flights would resume.
Jordan was the first country to send a civilian plane to Baghdad, stressing that air embargo is not stipulated in UN security council resolutions related to the embargo on Iraq.
Captain Jihad Rcheid, the country's director of civil aviation, was quoted by AFP as saying that commercial flights hinged on approval from the UN sanctions committee, which polices Iraq's commercial transactions.
"King Abdullah examined this matter with the US administration" during his current visit to the United States ending Thursday, Rcheid said.
"Jordan and other countries, including China and Russia, have already presented their demands for regular flights to Iraq but until today have not obtained permission from the sanctions committee of the UN Security Council," Rcheid said in comments published by Al Dustour, a Jordanian daily.
However, Rcheid said he expected an easing of sanctions on this matter by the United Nations in the near future.
"Jordan has pursued diplomatic efforts with the UN to obtain its approval" on the subject, he said.
Once the sanctions committee has given the go-ahead, Rcheid vouched that "Royal Jordanian and other local companies will be ready to run regular flights" to Baghdad.
A number of one-off flights allegedly for humanitarian purposes have been made in recent months to test the sanctions, and Royal Jordanian launched its first charter flight to Baghdad on November 30 after a 10-year pause.
Since the maiden voyage, Jordan has scheduled twice weekly flights on Royal Jordanian to Iraq, every Monday and Thursday, though the number of flights to Baghdad have declined in recent weeks.
Baghdad has been under economic sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, and disputes the legality of the ban on commercial flights as well as the no-fly zones patrolled by the US and Britain in northern and southern Iraq.
Many Arab and foreign countries, including France and Russia, followed with air flights to Baghdad carrying humanitarian aid to the sanctions-hit Iraqi people.
Jordan depends on Iraq for oil supply, part of which is given as a grant, while the remaining portion is bought at preferential prices, under a UN permission – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
