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UN Sanctions Committee Suspends Egyptian Flight to Baghdad
The UN Sanctions Committee suspended a humanitarian flight by EgyptAir to Baghdad that had been planned on Tuesday, the state-run Middle East News Agency reported Wednesday.
The committee recalled its previous approval of the flight at the request of the United States who asked for removing two cardiographs from the list of humanitarian items aboard the plane, Egyptian officials said.
They said that the move came as a surprise to the flight's organizers as the plane carried Egyptian doctors, representatives of human rights and aid groups, and medical supplies.
The officials considered the U.S. objection "unjustified," saying that such medical instruments as cardiographs do not have dual uses and are not banned by the committee.
Egypt has sent five flights in more than two months to Baghdad in a show of solidarity with the sanctions-stricken Iraqi people.
EgyptAir, the national carrier, decided last month to start a weekly charter flight to Baghdad after the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan on December 27, but has so far not implemented its plan largely due to opposition from the U.N. Sanctions Committee which is controlled by the U.S. and Britain.
International support for the U.N.-imposed economic sanctions on Iraq following its invasion of Kuwait in 1990 has been on the brink of collapse, and the U.N. Security Council has debated how to interpret the sanctions when they apply to flights to and from Baghdad.
Since the reopening of the Saddam International Airport on August 17, Egypt and other Arab countries, have challenged the air ban following Russian and French lead.
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