Jordan on Wednesday prepared to send the first Arab flight to Iraq in defiance of a UN embargo and US dismay, with cabinet ministers, parliamentarians and doctors aboard.
Members of the national basketball team, as well as other public figures and women activists, will be among 100 people on the plane, which will also carry large quantities of medicine and medical equipment to Baghdad.
The Royal Jordanian Airbus 320 was due to take off from Amman at 3:00 p.m. (1200 GMT), an airport spokeswoman told AFP.
Acting Information Minister Mahmud al-Kayed told AFP that Jordan "notified" the United Nations of the flight but did not "request" clearance, while Parliament Speaker Abdel Hadi al-Majali said civilian flights to Iraq were not banned under UN sanctions imposed 10 years ago.
"We have notified the United Nations about the flights, but we did not receive any response," Kayed told AFP.
He said he hoped the flight would pave the way for the resumption of air links with Iraq.
Earlier this month, Jordan officially requested that the UN permit the resumption of air links amid repeated calls from Baghdad, Jordanian deputies, opposition and Islamic leaders for such moves.
The planned flight, hailed at home, met with indirect protests from the United States -- the key provider of foreign civilian and military aid to Jordan and sponsor of its 1994 peace treaty with Israel.
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Tuesday expressed exasperation at the growing number of countries challenging the UN air embargo on Iraq.
"We are concerned about these flights that have taken place," Albright said in clear references to ones by Russia and France over the weekend.
"These flights need approval, not just notification," Albright said.
However, Kayed told AFP there had been no protest from the United States -- "none whatsoever."
Health Minister Tareq Suheimat will head the delegation, which will also include Kayed and the ministers of rural affairs and social development.
Majali said 12 deputies, most of whom are doctors, and several senators will also be on board.
Suheimat said he will meet his Iraqi counterpart during the 24-hour visit and tour hospitals to see about conditions and assess their needs.
"The goal of this trip is to underscore our strong support for the Iraqi people ... and it will be the first step towards strengthening and developing Arab-Arab relations," Suheimat said Wednesday.
Jordanian newspapers hoped the trip will bolster relations with Iraq, its main trading partner before the 1991 Gulf war and key supplier of crude oil.
"The flight might inject some goodwill into our strained political relationship with Iraq and could also encourage some degree of reciprocal sympathy when it comes time again to renegotiate our oil and gas protocol with Iraq," said the English-language Jordan Times.
Jordan wants to renew an oil and trade agreement with Iraq to secure 4.8 million tons of Iraqi crude for the year 2000, half free and half at discount prices, and export to Baghdad 300 million dollars worth of goods.
Government sources have said Prime Minister Ali Abu Ragheb is expected to visit Iraq at an undisclosed date after the flight -- becoming the first head of government to go there in nearly a decade.
Meanwhile, two planes from Iceland and Russia are to land in Baghdad within 48 hours, in further defiance of the decade-old UN embargo against Iraq, the official INA news agency reported Wednesday.
"Russia will send another plane to Baghdad in the coming two days, followed by Iceland, before Friday's scheduled arrival of the second French plane," INA said.
Both planes will stop over in Paris en route to Baghdad, the agency said without specifying the passengers the planes would be carrying.
The controversial flight embargo against Iraq is increasingly being challenged by countries that disagree with the United States and Britain on the need to maintain the sanctions.
A second French flight plans to fly from Paris to Baghdad on Friday with about 100 passengers, including several well-known personalities.
The first flight between the two cities in a decade landed in Baghdad last Friday carrying 75 passengers, provoking an angry reaction from the United States.
Washington accused Paris of violating UN sanctions imposed on Baghdad after Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in 1990, triggering the Gulf War of January-February 1991.
The organizers of that flight described it as a non-commercial humanitarian flight and therefore exempt from the terms of the embargo.
Russia last weekend also flew a plane into Baghdad, while India has said it is planning to send one of its own - (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
