Fourth Turkish Aid Plane Lands in Baghdad
October 16, 2000 - 0:0
BAGHDAD A Turkish airliner carrying a trade and medical delegation landed in Baghdad on Sunday, the fourth Turkish flight in a week despite UN sanctions on Iraq, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.
The Turkish plane follows several other flights sent by Arab and other nations to Baghdad to challenge the 10-year-old UN sanctions imposed on Iraq for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
INA said the plane landed in Saddam International Airport at 12:15 (0930 GMT). The agency said the Turkish delegation would hold "talks with Iraqi officials to expand trade exchange between Iraq and Turkey." Bilateral trade with Iraq, Turkey's fourth largest trade partner before the Persian Gulf War, has dropped sharply from some $2.5 billion annually in the early 1990s. It is governed by an oil-for-food deal that allows Baghdad to buy food and medicine.
The flights to Iraq, although largely symbolic, have sought to lessen Baghdad's isolation by exploiting a loophole in a 1990 UN Security Council resolution dealing with sanctions.
The United States and Britain are the powers on the UN Security Council responsible for keeping the sanctions regime firmly in place. Other major powers including France and Russia would like to see the sanctions eased.
(Reuter)
The Turkish plane follows several other flights sent by Arab and other nations to Baghdad to challenge the 10-year-old UN sanctions imposed on Iraq for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
INA said the plane landed in Saddam International Airport at 12:15 (0930 GMT). The agency said the Turkish delegation would hold "talks with Iraqi officials to expand trade exchange between Iraq and Turkey." Bilateral trade with Iraq, Turkey's fourth largest trade partner before the Persian Gulf War, has dropped sharply from some $2.5 billion annually in the early 1990s. It is governed by an oil-for-food deal that allows Baghdad to buy food and medicine.
The flights to Iraq, although largely symbolic, have sought to lessen Baghdad's isolation by exploiting a loophole in a 1990 UN Security Council resolution dealing with sanctions.
The United States and Britain are the powers on the UN Security Council responsible for keeping the sanctions regime firmly in place. Other major powers including France and Russia would like to see the sanctions eased.
(Reuter)