October 26, 2000
A fourth Syrian plane landed Thursday in Baghdad in defiance of the United States' criticism of Syria for failing to notify the United Nations sanctions committee. The plane brought 90 leaders of Arab syndicates, as well as foodstuffs and medicines to Iraq.
The flight was the fourth from Syria in the past few weeks. Other flights have arrived since France and Russia challenged the U.N. sanctions regime last month.
The 90 syndicate leaders had visited Syria for a conference of the Central Council of the International Union of Arab Labourers' Syndicates over how to support the Palestinian uprising. Hasan Jammam, the secretary-general of the international union, said the main goal of the flight was to "break the siege imposed on Iraq by the U.S. and Britain and to support the Iraqi people in its ordeal".
The Egyptian news agency Mena said Thursday that Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abul el Raghib was planning to fly to Baghdad this month, the first Jordanian leader to fly to Iraq in ten years. Press reports also quoted the daughter of Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi, Aisha Gaddafi, as telling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein her father would be the first Arab head of state to visit Iraq. Aisha Gaddafi, who did not not name a date, herself has flown to Baghdad.
The U.N. air embargo was imposed in 1990 following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. A dispute has broken out within the U.N. sanctions committee whether the sanctions apply to civilian flights whose relief cargo is announced beforehand. At the Arab summit in Cairo last week-end, a large majority of countries asked the U.N. Security Council to end the sanctions against Iraq, expressing doubts about their effectiveness, especially as regards the aim of bringing down Saddam Hussein.
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