The International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions (ICATU) said Sunday it hoped to organize a flight into Iraq, following Russian and French missions that flew into Baghdad despite the sanctions in force since 1990.
The group said it was contacting airlines to lease a plane and that the flight would bring representatives of Arab unions, lawyers and youth groups into Iraq.
"We will bring Iraq's workers and people technical, food and medical help to try to diminish their suffering, and we will launch press campaigns and support meetings to denounce American and British practices and aggression against Iraq, which violate human rights," the ICATU said in a statement.
"This aggression against Iraq targets the entire Arab nation and serves the enemies: the Zionist entity and the United States," it said.
The ICATU, a Damascus-based labor confederation with representatives from 19 countries, also issued a call for Arab airlines to resume flights with Iraq, suspended after its invasion of Kuwait.
A Russian flight owned by the Russian Vnukovo Airlines arrived in Baghdad on Saturday, a day after a French plane carrying doctors and athletes landed in the Iraqi capital.
Iraq has been under a wide range of international sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, but the permanent members of the UN Security Council disagree over the extent to which air traffic is affected, with France, Russia and China arguing that non-commercial passenger flights to Baghdad are not covered.
With the air embargo on Baghdad falling apart, another 120-strong delegation of European lawmakers and business people has been trying to organize another flight to Iraq from Paris at the end of September – DAMASCUS (AFP)
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