An Iraqi delegation is in Moscow to examine ways of resuming flights to Baghdad by Aeroflot, Russia's largest airline, following a 10-year break, a newspaper here reported Tuesday.
The six-member delegation, led by Iraq's civil aviation authority chief Maamun al-Nassiri, left Baghdad on Monday to discuss "timetables, reservations and ticket pricing" for the flights, Al-Ittihad said.
On September 17, Vyacheslav Kovalchuk, Aeroflot's representative for Africa and the Middle East, said the airline was to reopen its Baghdad office in four to six weeks and resume flights as soon as the UN embargo on Iraq was lifted.
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Washington would oppose Aeroflot's plans to resume flights to Iraq and said it expected all UN members to abide by sanctions imposed on Baghdad after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The controversial flight embargo against Iraq is increasingly being challenged by countries that do not agree with the United States and Britain on the need to maintain the sanctions.
Both France and Russia last weekend flew a plane into Baghdad and a Jordanian flight is expected in the Iraqi capital on Wednesday.
A second French flight plans to defy the embargo by flying from Paris to Baghdad on September 29 with about 100 passengers, including politicians from several European countries.
India also plans to send a plane to Baghdad - BAGHDAD (AFP)
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